Hogwarts Nineteen Years too Soon
by DracoCorvus
Summary: Albus Potter is on his way to his first year at Hogwarts not knowing what to expect. But between rouge dragons, crazy teachers, and a familiar evil it will be anything but dull. DH spoilers!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So just a warning before we go on- this story contains DH spoilers, so if you havn't read the book yet and don't want to know the ending- please do not read. This story will follow Harry's middle chile, Albus through his first school year at Hogwarts. The first chapter os more of an opening, so it diesn't focus on him as much, but I still like it- and I hope you do too. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 1: Birthdays and Ghosts**

The month before school started was always hectic around the Potter residence, enough so to make Harry and Ginny start dreading the word 'Hogwarts'. Last year it had been their oldest son, James's, first year and now it was their younger son, Albus's, time to board to familiar purple train for the first time and the boy was nothing more than a bundle of nerves.

What made matters worse was little Lily, Harry and Ginny's youngest child, still had two years to go before she was old enough to go to Hogwarts and just moped around all day, complaining about being the youngest.

Ginny, standing in her kitchen about a month a half before school started, watching her daughter mope around the kitchen, wondered if it were this bow, how much worse would it be in the week preceding the start of school.

"James, Albus, I need both of you to come to the kitchen" Ginny called out, shaking her head slightly as James ran full speed into the room, laughing. The boy was a firecracker, always running around, playing jokes, teasing his siblings. It was enough to drive Ginny mad at times. She now felt her mother's pain of having to raise Fred and George- how nerve-racking it must have been.

Albus followed after James, looking as calm as always. Al had always been a good, sweet child, never a bother to Ginny or Harry at all. He was a happy child, but he was much more mature than his older brother.

Ginny looked down at her three children, smiling at them. James was the tallest of the three, about three inches taller than his younger brother, with a mop of red hair and laughing light green eyes. Al was the only one of the three children who had inherited his father's black hair. In fact, he was a miniature of his father, with his messy hair and almond shaped emerald eyes. Lily was almost as tall as Albus and had a mane of curly crimson hair and grinning hazel eyes. Ginny knew in a few years that she would be quite a fetching young girl.

"Now listen, you three" Ginny said, looking at her children "We are throwing a party for your cousin Camille today- you know she's turning twelve"

"I turned twelve three days ago" James said proudly. Ginny sighed.

"Must everything between you two be a competition?" she asked. James and Camille where in the same year at Hogwarts- they were best friends but both of them were very competitive.

"Anyways" Ginny said, starting once again "I wanted to tell all three of you that I want you to be on your best behavior. I know that you guys get excited when you cousins come over…"

All of the sudden the doorbell chimed and James gave off a little yelp and rushed out of the room towards the door.

"I don't know why I bother trying to tell that child anything" Ginny groaned, following her son out of the room.

James had already thrown open the door to reveal Ron and Hermione standing on the doorstep, their kids, Hugo and Rose running into the house. Rose was the same age as Albus and Hugo was the same age as Lily.

Harry had come down the stairs and was greeted both of them.

"Hey guys, come on in" he said. Hermione and Ron smiled up at him and came into the house. Both of them lived next door, so they were frequent visitors to the Potter house.

"We're not late are we?" Hermione asked, looking at her watch "You told us to come over at four, but I didn't know if you needed me to come earlier to help you prepare or anything" she said. Ginny laughed. Nineteen years may have passed, but Hermione was still a constant worrier.

"Don't worry, Mione" Ginny said "We really didn't prepare much at all. Camille told us that she wanted a very simple party"

"Well is she here yet?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head.

"Ah- well I have an amazing present for her" Ron said, holding up a large package.

"Not as good as mine" Harry said, smiling, showing a tiny little wrapped package. Ron frowned slightly.

"What is it- you know she doesn't like jewelry, right" Rom said.

"Ah Ron, get off of it- I'm sure she'll love both of your presents" Hermione said, shaking her head. In the twenty six years she had known Harry and Ron, she felt that neither one of them had really changed at all.

The doorbell rang once more and Ginny opened it to find George and Camille.

"Ah, here the birthday girl is" Ginny said, smiling widely and holding the door open for both of them. James burst into the room.

"Cammy come here- I caught a spider as big as my face yesterday!" he cried.

"You caught WHAT?" Ginny said, turning on her son.

"Where are you keeping that thing?" Harry asked.

"It's in the backyard, no worries" James said as him and Camille ran towards the back of the house.

"Their quite a pair, they are" Ron said, shaking his head.

"Yeah" George said, looking wistful.

"So, how are things in the shop for you?" Ginny asked as she led the group to the main room.

"Normal" George answered "Cammy and I are working on a new line of products right now" he continued, his face lighting up when he mentioned his daughter. Everybody knew that George absolutely doted on the girl. George's wife had died in childbirth so it had just been him and Camille for the past twelve years. She was exactly like her father too; a natural jokester who loved playing pranks on everybody. She was also brilliant like her father and had been helping him create new projects since she was eight. And George treated her not like his daughter, but like a best friend. Ginny thought that he was making up for the loss of Fred.

"Fred wanted to come- but he just got repaired and I didn't think he was fit to travel" George said. Fred nowadays was a portrait hanging in George's house and in each of the joke shops. He was known to play tricks on visitors and customers alike and tell Camille grisly but fake tales of how he died. The girl absolutely adored him and was probably the only person ever who had a portrait as a godfather.

"It's fine" Ginny said "Cammy said she didn't want a big party anyways"

Suddenly Both Camille and James ran back into the room.

"Neville's here!" Camille cried as she threw open the door. And sure enough Neville came walking up the pathway, his wife, Luna, right next to him-looking very serene and very pregnant.

"Nevy!" Camille cried out running up to him. Neville just shook his head and laughed. He hated when Camille called him that and she knew it quite well.

"Well enjoy calling me whatever you want for now" he said to the girl "because in a month and a half you'll be calling me Professor Longbottom again" he said.

"How impersonal!" Cammy said, looking over his shoulder. "Is professor McGonagall coming?" she asked.

"You'll show her respect, but you won't show me any" he said. Camille just looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"She's the headmistress" Camille said, shaking her head. "Of course I have to show her respect." Albus, who was standing in the doorway, gasped.

"The headmistress…of Hogwarts…is coming here?' he asked. Harry placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Al, you've met her before" he reminded his son. James nodded.

"Yeah, don't you remember? She was that fat lady in the bow who yelled at you before dad and mum dragged her off' James said, smiling widely. Albus paled.

"James- that was Umbridge!" Harry cried. Upon hearing her name all the adults in the room shuddered a bit. A small smile crept up on George's mouth. No doubt he was remembering the ultimate prank him and his brother had played on the lady before they zoomed out of the school on their broomsticks.

"Minerva is a very nice lady, Al" Ginny said to her son "and very brave as well- you'll be sure to love her"

"Do you know last year she hoisted a student up ten feet in the air because she was throwing rocks at the Giant Squid!" Camille said exitedly. Hermione just shook her head.

"Nobody told me there was a Giant Squid!" Rose cried suddenly. It would be her first year at Hogwarts as well, and while she wasn't as nervous as Albus, she was still apprehensive.

"Don't either of you worry about anything" Neville said as him and Luna walked into the house "both of you will have a blast, I promise" he said.

"Is Hagrid going to be able to make it?" Ginny asked.

"Ah- no, he sent a gift though" Neville said, holding out a large package "he is taking care of some of the new animals that Luna caught him over the summer."

'Nargals" Luna said dreamily "I found many nests of them on our vacation" Hermione snorted.

"Luna- the are no Nargals" she said, exasperated. Hermione thought that by now Luna would have given up her odd, childhood fantasies.

"Yes there are" Neville said "I actually couldn't believe when she found them" Hermione gasped.

"You mean…Nargals are real?" she said, aghast. Luna nodded.

"And I was wrong- they aren't mean at all, very gentle" she said "in fact, I brought one for Camille as a birthday gift and one for Albus because he didn't have an animal yet" she said, holding out two cages. She gave one to Camille and one to Albus.

Albus opened his cage with shaking hands. Inside was an animal that looked like a cat except it had small wings on its back. It was a beautiful golden color and was extremely cute. He looked up and saw Camille's Nargal, which looked like his except it was silver and had black stripes.

"Thank you so much!" both of them cried.

"Can they fly?' Albus asked, looking at the wings.

"No, they can lift themselves a few inches in the air- but their wings are too small" Luna answered "But they use their wings to help them run- they can run much faster than most animals. Plus they are also very good at sniffing out poisonous plants- they are very smart"

"I don't know if a Nargal is on the approved list of animals allowed in Hogwarts" Ginny said, looking at the golden ball of fur in her son's arms.

"Ah- Hagrid's raising a whole lot of them" Neville said "Minerva will be okay with them"

"Al, how about you go and take some of the newspaper and make a bed for your new pet" Ginny said, pointing to the stack by the door "It's the Daily Prophet so I really don't care what you do with it".

"And think of a name for it as well" Harry said "I found a name for my old owl in my textbooks."

"It was the only time he ever opened any of his textbooks" Hermione said, laughing. Harry scowled at her.

So Albus and Rose took the Nargal and the newspaper and walked to his room. Albus loved his room; it was covered with posters of dragons sent by his uncle Charlie and different odd goblin made items from his uncle Bill. His desktop was filled with dark detectors that his dad gave him and crudely carved animals that Hagrid had made for him.

In the corner of his room was a chest filled with all the joke items he could ever want, provided by Camille and his Uncle George. On top of the chest were random, funny muggle items his granddad gave him and various French collectables from his Aunt Fleur. Al's room reminded him of his family and he always felt safe when he was in it.

"So what are you going to name her?" Rose asked, setting newspaper down in the corner of the room.

"How do you know it's a girl?' Al asked. Rose shook head.

"I asked Luna before we came up here" she answered. Al put the Nargal down on the floor. She immediately started to sniff around, getting used to her surroundings.

"Well dad named his old Owl after a famous witch, but I don't know any" Al said. Rose reached down into her pocket and pulled out three Chocolate Frog cards that her dad had given her. Chocolate Frogs didn't come with cards anymore, but her dad used to collect them back when they did.

'Hmmm" she said, looking at them "How about Bathilda?" she asked. Al wrinkled his nose.

"That's an odd name" he said. Rose looked at her other card.

"Then what about Morgana?" she said. Albus looked down at the little creature and smiled.

"I think Morgana fits her just perfectly" he answered. And so Morgana was named and became Albus's first pet.

"You're so lucky" Rose said longingly "A Nargal! What a cool pet. I just got an owl"

"Well owls can carry mail" Al said "I don't think Nargals can…but then again I frankly don't know anything about Nargals. What do they eat?" he asked.

"Bed sheets apparently" Rose said, laughing and pointing to Morgana, who was in the process of chewing Albus's sheets.

"Bad girl" Al said, pulling the tiny creature away from his bed.

He and Rose spent the next half hour keeping Morgana from breaking anything.

"I guess she needs a bit of house training" Al said as he pulled her away from his desk for the tenth time. Rose just nodded her head, looking exhausted.

"Al, Rose- come down!" Ginny called from the bottom of the stairs.

Al grabbed Morgana and him and Rose went down the stairs. Everybody was sitting in the main room. Al saw that Teddy had arrived when he and Rose had been upstairs.

"Hi Teddy!" Al said as he walked into the room.

"Hey Al" Teddy answered back, smiling "It looks like you got one of the Nargals as well"

"Yeah- I named her Morgana" Al answered.

"Very nice name" Luna said serenely "do you know that Morgana La Fay was actually a vampire pretending to be a fairy so that she could suck out the blood of woodland creatures"

"Woodland creatures?" Ron asked, his voice strangled. He sounded like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Oh yes- Medieval vampires had a special preference of woodland creatures" Luna answered, absentmindedly fidgeting with her old butterbeer cap necklace that she still wore for special occasions.

"Here we are" Ginny said, coming into the room holding a large cake. They all sang happy birthday and cut the cake. As everybody was eating the topic once again drifted back to Hogwarts.

"So, Nevy, do you know who is going to our new DA teacher this year?" Camille asked, sitting next to her dad on the couch. Their old DA teacher had actually lasted for ten years- but had left last year for 'unknown reasons'. Luna has suspected that the "invisible crackshaws" in the DA room had driven him away. Nobody knew or really wanted to find out what exactly an invisible crackshaw was.

"They didn't tell me anything yet" Neville said. "But I really don't know who would want that job now"

"Well I hope it's somebody good" James said, stuffing his face with cake "you guys had all the fun DA teachers when you were in school"

"James, the only good teacher we had was Teddy's dad. Other than that we had a guy possessed by the dark lord, a famous wizard in love with himself, a mad death eater using polyjuice potion, and psycho Umbridge" Harry said.

"Yeah, like I said- you had all the fun teachers" James said, sighing "we have boring, boring professors"

"Hey! I don't think I'm boring" Neville said.

"Yeah- well besides you and Hagrid we don't have any exciting professors" Camille said. "All of our professors are old- like Flitwick and Slughorn. In fact I expect Slughorn just to fall over in his pineapple chunks one of these days"

"Well, those were the professors we had too" Ron said "they weren't firecrackers back then either. But, of course, Hermione worshiped them."

"I did not worship the professors" Hermione said, throwing her husband a dirty look.

"Need I remind you of your little lover Lockhart" Ron said. Hermione bushed furiously.

"Well don't make me bring up Lav-Lav" she retorted, causing Ron to become just as red.

"Who's that?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. Ron mumbled something incoherent.

"Lavender Brown" Hermione answered, smiling brightly "Ron's first girlfriend".

"You mean dad have another girlfriend?" Rose asked, shocked.

"Hey!" Ron said, sounding offended. He turned around to Hermione.

"Well why haven't you mentioned Krum yet?" he asked, causing her to scowl.

"You went out with Krum?" Teddy asked, amazed "as in the international quidditch superstar?'

Hermione nodded slightly, clearly wanting the subject to change.

"But Ginny had the most boyfriends out of all of us" Hermione said quickly.

"Really?" Camille asked in fake shock "you mean she had more boyfriends than Harry!"

Hermione, Ron and Teddy snorted into their cake and Harry saw George give his daughter a high five.

"Very funny" Harry said, smiling slightly at the girl. Camille was probably the only person with the last name Weasley who didn't have red hair. Her hair was long and auburn and her eyes were a light, sparkling blue. She hadn't inherited many features from her father except for her large smile and, of course, her sense of humor.

The door bell rand once more and Ginny went to go answer it. A moment later Minerva McGonagall walked into the main room.

"Professor McGonagall!" Camille and James both cried out. Al looked up at her shakily. She was an old woman, but she looked very proper and very strict and not somebody who would be very nice. But when she smiled down at James and Camille, she looked very warm and Al felt immediately better.

"I don't think she's too scary" Rose whispered to his, and he nodded his head.

"Hello James. Happy Birthday Camille" McGonagall said, as she sat down in a chair that Ginny had brought her. Then her eyes went to Al and Rose, who were sitting next to each other on the floor, leaning up against the sofa Harry and Ginny were on. Immediately both of the children sat up straight.

"Ah, so these are our two new students, aren't they?" she asked. Both of them nodded.

"I'm Rose Molly Weasley" Rose said.

"Very nice to meet you Rose" McGonagall answered.

"And I'm Albus Severus Potter" Al said. The headmistress's eyes misted when she heard her name.

'And it's very nice to meet you as well, Albus" she said "what a lovely name you have. Albus and Severus, the two bravest people that I have had the pleasure of meeting"

Al looked down at the ground, a bit embarrassed. That was exactly what most of his parents' friends said to him when they met him. He wished that he had known at least one of the wizards he had been named after, it seemed so odd that more people knew about those wizards than he did.

"Thanks" he said to McGonagall, who was now wiping her eye with a handkerchief.

"Well now that everybody is here why don't we get to opening the presents" Ginny said, trying to lighten up the mood.

"So is Granddad not coming?" Al asked, looking up at his mom.

"Al, you know that your grandfather is a very, very busy person. Being the Minister of Magic is no easy feat" she said, bringing out the presents that everybody had brought for Camille.

"Open mine first" Ron said, pushing his gift toward the girl.

"Do you always have to act so childish?" Hermione asked, shaking her head. Camille opened the large, lumpy package that Ron had thrust in her hands revealing an old beater bat.

"It's Fred's" Ron said, smiling softly "from when he used to play at Hogwarts. We all know that you're the best bet for Gryffindor beater this year so I thought you would like to have it"

Camille looked up at Ron with a huge smile, her eyes sparkling with the hint of tears "Thanks you Uncle Ron" she said "I love it".

Harry looked over at George, who was now holding the bat very gently, as though it was a priceless artifact.

"Wow, I wonder what Fred is going to say once he sees this" he whispered.

Camille then turned towards Harry's gift and opened it.

"Ah no, Harry- you didn't!" George cried. Harry had given her the marauder's map.

"You father gave this to me when I was in my third year and it helped me greatly" Harry said, smiling "But I obviously don't need it anymore and I think you'll put it to best use"

"What does it do?" Camille asked. George showed his daughter how to use it and her eyes grew wide in excitement.

"It's a map of all the secret passageways in Hogwarts!" she cried. James hurried next to her to see it.

"No way!" James cried "do you know what we can do with this? Look- this passageway leads to Hogsmede!"

"Have you two forgotten that there is a Headmistress in this room?' McGonagall asked, eyebrows raised. Both Camille and James sobered immediately.

"So that's how toy managed to sneak out to Hogsmede all the time" she said to Harry, who still, after all this time, still felt ashamed under the look she gave him.

"I guess you should open Hagrid's next" Neville said. Camille opened it to find a large, white egg.

"Oh no" Hermione whispered.

"That's…that's a dragon egg!" Harry yelped, remembering the dragon that Hagrid had hatched in his first year at Hogwarts.

"A dragon egg!" Camille excitedly. "Where did he get it from?"

"Probably from a shady man in some sort of pub" Ron said.

"You can't keep a dragon egg!" McGonagall said.

"Why can't she, it's wicked!" Teddy exclaimed, looking at the egg's smooth, white surface.

"Dragons are not domestic pets!' Hermione cried out, turning to George. "You're her father George; tell her that she can't have a dragon."

"Well, we do have a lot of space in our house" he said slowly. Clearly, he was just as excited as his daughter was over the prospect of having a dragon.

"But, isn't it hard to raise dragons?' Neville asked.

"Charlie does it all the time' George said.

"But what about the muggles? They'll notice if you are raising a dragon- they aren't small things!" Minerva said strictly.

"Please, Minni" George said "We live in a huge, secluded area, there are no muggles there!"

And it was true. George and Camille lived in a large house in the Scottish highlands. They owned a huge tract of land with its own beach and plenty of space for creatures (like dragons) to roam around.

"But you and Cammy are out of the house all the time- who is going to stay with the dragon?" Ginny asked.

"We have Lettie" George said. Lettie was George's housekeeper. She was a very tough woman- there was nothing that she couldn't do.

"So you're really going to keep it" McGonagall said, shaking her head.

"Both of you are insane" Hermione said, looking sullen.

"Well I think Dragons are excellent pets. They keep the Grindywallows away" Luna interjected. Nobody even bothered asking what a Grindywallow was.

Camille opened the rest of her presents with a new gleam in her eyes. McGonagall had given her a new book on quidditch-"Not a dragon, but much safer" McGonagall sniffed- and Teddy had given her a box full of various potions that she could use to change her appearance.

"It's not exactly as good as being a metemorphagus, but it's close" he said, winking at her from under the bangs of his lime green hair.

The party ended soon after words and everybody staggered home, Camille beaming, holding her Nargal (that she named Merlin) and her dragon's egg.

"A dragon and a Nargal! Cammy has all the good pets" James said once everybody left.

"James, a dragon is not a good pet- trust me" Harry said, remembering Norbert.

"Ah well, at least I still have my giant spider" James said.

"Which you are not bringing into the house" Ginny added in.

James sighed and left the room. Lily looked at her mum nervously.

"Are you sure James isn't going to bring the spider inside the house?" she asked.

"Of course, now you come up- we have to get ready for bed" Ginny said, ushering her small daughter out of the room. The only people left in the main room now were Harry and Albus, who was holding a snoozing Morgana in his lap.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed too, Al?" Harry asked. Albus shook his head.

"I'm not tired" he said softly, stroking Morgana. Harry sat down next to him.

"Still nervous about starting school?" he asked. Albus shrugged.

"I guess, but it's not that" he said.

"Then what is it?"

Albus looked up at his father.

"Have you ever gotten the feeling that something awful is going to happen?" he asked. Harry looked down at his small son in surprise.

"What awful thing do you think is going to happen?" he asked.

"I don't know…I just have a feeling" Al mumbled.

"Al, there isn't anything out there than can harm you anymore, okay. All the dangerous people were taken care of years before you were born" Harry said. He had never told his children his story on defeating Voldemort in its extent. He had told them snippets and bits, what he thought were safe. He decided that once his children were old enough he would tell them the whole story.

"Are you sure?' Al asked.

"Of course I am. Now come up and get changed" Harry said, leading his son out of the room. "We're going to Diagon Alley next week to pick up school supplies- we'll find a bed for Morgana then as well" he said.

"Will they even have beds for Nargals?" Albus asked. Harry grinned and shook his head.

"I don't know Al, I don't know"

* * *

Far away from the cozy Potter house, in the secluded, windswept plains of Northern Ireland, a single girl was sitting in the overgrown lawn of her grandparent's crumbling shack. Her face was streaked with dirt and her figure small and thin with malnourishment. But even though the girl struck an image of every single other child in her poor village, there was something that set her apart. Her eyes constantly held a very evil gleam and she acted strangely, people said.

In fact, the villagers thought that her whole family was strange. Odd things always seemed to happen around their shack. Animals would get lost and never be found, but there was always a pile of bones beside the girl's shack and odd, strange smells and smoke emitted from it.

"Cursed, that family is" the villagers said to each other. "Odd people" there were even whispers throughout the village of witchcraft and other such deeds of evil, though no one dared speak of them in front of the girl or her grandparents.

'Ruby, come inside now"

The girl turned her head to see her grandmother standing in the doorway. The lady had once been very pretty, but was now weathered and worn.

"Coming" Ruby said, setting down the rocks that she had been levitating lazily around in a circle. She got up and rushed to the house, her grandmother giving her a stern look.

"You haven't been playing with the rocks again, have you?" she asked. "you know that the muggles are already suspicious after what you did to the O'Neil boy"

"He deserved it" she said, her eyes darkening. Her grandmother tossed her another stern look.

"It doesn't matter if he deserved it or not, you know that you can't use your powers in front of the villagers. Your going to be off to Hogwarts in another month, so hold your magic till then! Now go get washed up for supper" she said. Ruby turned and walked away.

Her grandmother stared at her as she went. Ruby had always been a very gifted child with a strong natural tendency for magic. She was very bright, but her grandparents worried about her as well. Both of them had been supporters of the Dark Lord when he had been alive, but now he was gone, they had given up their dark magic ways. Ruby, on the other hand, was obsessed with the darker aspects to magic. She had read every book they owned on the subject and her grandmother had even caught her practicing various horrific spells using her grandfather's wand. She was an odd girl, indeed.

Ruby waited until she was out of the sight of her grandmother and ran outside using the back door. She ran across the yellowing grass, her bare feet getting scratched by the rough texture. She ran all the way to the ancient stone wall that separated her grandparent's house from the ocean. Apparently in the past, too many kids had drowned in the treacherous waters, so the villagers had decided to build the wall many, many years ago.

Ruby climbed up on the wall and looked around to make sure no one was watching her. She took out a small ring from her pocket and turned it over three times. A figure appeared in front of her, a familiar, evil ghostly figure.

"Master" Ruby whispered, her dark eyes shining with excitement.

"Ruby Rune" the figure said slowly "my most faithful follower"

"Grandmother says that the villagers have started to get suspicious. It is best if I don't do anything anymore…at least until I get some Hogwarts" she whispered.

"Yes…" the figure drawled his voice deep and low. "Yes, I will continue to give you lessons, but don't do anything until you reach school…I have a few people that I need you to…take care of"

"Who, master?" Ruby asked, her eyes shining and her voice trembling in excitement over the fact of having taking care of someone for her master.

"I heard that Harry Potter's son will be coming in for his first year at Hogwarts as well" he said. Even in death Voldemort's eyes shined red. "And I say we give him a proper welcome."

**A/N: Okay, so what do you think about that? Please review! It means the world to me. **


	2. The Sorting Ceremony

**A/N: Okay, here is the second chapter. It's starts off with Al on the train on the way to Hogwarts. I skipped the whole King's Cross scene because it was in the 7th book. I hope you like this!**

Chapter 2: The Sorting Ceremony

Albus Potter sat in his train seat, looking out at the platform as everybody that he had known and loved grew farther and father away. He saw his dad- still waving at him and his mum clutching onto a sobbing Lily, and at that moment, he wanted nothing more to stop the train and run back to them.

But instead, Al turned back around in his seat. Ever since he had been born people had been saying how brave and how noble the wizards he was named after were, and he decided that he would try to be just as brave. Rose was sitting in the seat across from him, fidgeting with her owl cage.

"Maxine wants to get out" she told him, pointing at the large, tawny owl. "The muggles next door are afraid of birds so we couldn't let her out"

"The new people that moved in?" Al asked. Rose nodded. Al didn't like the new people very much; they were very ill tempered and hated when Lily and Hugo played in the street. A week before James had slipped a bag of mice into their yard and they had the whole place fumigated. The neighborhood smelled of chemicals for days.

"You don't look so good" Rose noted to Al as she searched through her satchel.

"I guess I'm nervous" Al answered, looking at the window once again. King's Cross was behind them and now they were going through a small city.

"Nervous?" Rose asked "Well I guess we all are. But I can't wait for sorting!" she gushed.

"I can" Al said miserably "what will happen if I don't get in Gryffindor?" he said.

"What's the big problem if you don't?" Rose asked.

"Rose- everybody in my family has been in Gryffindor!" Al cried.

"Everybody on my family has been in Slytherin and I don't want to be in it" a small boy in the corner of the compartment said. Both Al and Rose turned to see Scorpio Malfoy, the boy that Ron had warned them not to get too friendly with.

"They've all been in Slytherin?" Rose asked. Scorpio nodded his head, his light, white-blond hair falling into his dark grey eyes.

"My dad was even prefect" he said.

"Well, won't he be disappointed if you aren't in his old house?" Al asked.

"No, he told me that it is probably time for a change. Said that Slytherin didn't have the best track record and it usually got our family in trouble".

"Trouble?" Rose asked. "Like what?"

"I don't know, he doesn't tell me much of what happened when he was younger" Scorpio said.

"Neither does my dad, he said he'd tell us when we're older" Al said.

Soon Al, Rose, and Scorpio were all sitting together, chatting. Al didn't know why Ron didn't like Scorpio; he was a really nice kid.

"So what house was your mum in?" Rose asked, as they passed rolling green hills.

"She didn't go to Hogwarts" Scorpio said "she went to Beaubatons, in France"

"Oh, my aunt Fleur went there. Is your mum a veela as well?" Rose asked.

"Your aunt's a veela?" Scorpio asked, his eyes wide.

"Well, she's part veela, her grandmum was one" Al said. "Her daughter, Victorie, goes to Hogwarts. She's in her seventh year"

And just as though on cue, Victorie bounded into the compartment, her blue eyes sparkling with anger. She was a very beautiful girl, with large violet eyes and flaming red hair shot through with gold.

"Those children- so immature!" she cried as she came in.

"Who?" Al asked.

"Your brother and Camille" she said, shaking her head.

"What did they do now?" Rose asked.

"They set my bag on fire! I put it out, but my robes are singed" she exclaimed frowning deeply. Even when she was angry, Victorie still looked as lovely as ever.

"But I'm sorry" she said looking down "I shouldn't be getting mad at you". She looked down at Scorpio and smiled.

"I don't think I've met you before" she said.

"I'm going to be a first year" Scorpio said, holding out his hand, his eyes glassed over.

"Victorie Weasley" she said shaking his hand.

"Scorpio Malfoy" he answered. Victorie's bright smile faltered a bit when she heard the boy's name.

"Oh well, it was nice to meet you" she said. "I'll be getting back to my own compartment now- I'll see the three of you at the sorting ceremony. Hopefully you'll get in Gryffindor" she said as she bounded out the door.

"She hated me" Scorpio said, miserably.

"How could she hate you- you barley said ten words to her?" Rose said.

"It's my name. Everybody acts that way when they hear my name- like they hate me" he said.

"Well, I know Scorpio is different name…" Al began.

"No" Scorpio said, cutting him off "It's my last name, Malfoy. People treat me like I'm a slug once they hear it. I think my father must have done something awful when he was younger. Or it could have been my granddad- father doesn't talk about him much"

"You're probably just making things up" Rose said as the compartment door opened once more. This time a boy with dark brown hair and golden eyes came in.

"Oh, hello" he said, his voice sounding hushed.

"Why are you whispering?" Rose asked.

"It's this crazy girl that I was in my compartment with." He answered "she's really odd and mean- I said I was going to see when the lunch cart would come and I ran away" he said.

"Well, you're welcome to sit with us" Al said, pointing to the empty space next to Rose.

"Thanks" he said sitting down "I'm Avery Pall, by the way" he said sitting down. Everybody introduced themselves to Avery.

"Are you all going to be first years as well?" Avery asked. They all nodded.

"Do you know what house you want to be in?" he asked.

"Gryffindor" Rose and Albus said at once.

"I'll be happy with everything except for Slytherin" Scorpio said.

"Really?" asked Avery "Even Hufflepuff?" Avery asked.

"I guess" Scorpio said.

"Really, I think I would die if I was in Hufflepuff' Avery said "In fact I heard Hufflepuff was the house where all the daft people go."

Avery kept on talking about the woes of Hufflepuff as the lunch cart rolled by and as they ate their cauldron cakes and candy.

Soon, the landscapes were becoming more and more open and the light started to fade. Avery was now talking about how he would slice the sorting hat in two if he got into Hufflepuff.

Soon the announcement came on telling the children to change into their robes, cutting Avery's speech about the crazy Head of Hufflepuff in half.

"Oh- I left my robes in my other compartment, I have to go get them" he said, leaving the compartment.

Scorpio gave a sigh of relief.

"Oh- I don't think I could have spent another minute listening to how awful Hufflepuff is" he said.

"My dad never really talked much about people in Hufflepuff before" Rose said. "I guess most people tend to forget about them."

"My dad said that one of the bravest people he knew was in Hufflepuff" Al said. "Cedric Diggory"

"How come your dad always met all the bravest people?' Rose asked "It seems that everybody that he used to know ended up being super brave."

"I don't know- maybe Hogwarts was different back then" Al said.

"My dad told me that there was a huge battle at Hogwarts in his seventh year" Scorpio said. Rose and Al gasped.

"A battle? Between who?" Rose asked, eyes wide.

"What's all this talk about battles?

Al, Rose, and Scorpio turned around to see Camille, who had just walked into their compartment. She had already changed into her robes and was wearing a pair of earrings that seemed to be made out of cork.

"What are you wearing?" Rose asked, pointing to Camille's ears. Camille smiled widely at them.

"They're made out of Firewhisky corks" she said "Luna made them for me"

"Where's James?" Al asked, looking around. Usually Cammy and James were inseparable.

"Oh…he's getting things ready…for the feast" she said with a large grin.

"You're going to pull a prank at the feast?" Al asked, awed.

"There isn't any better time" she said, smiling widely.

"But won't the headmistress be upset?" Scorpio asked.

"Minerva? Nah, she'll be fine with it" Camille said, turning to Scorpio. "Another first year?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm Scorpio Malfoy" he said. Camille grinned.

"Camille Weasley" she said, checking her watch. "We'll be approaching Hogwarts any second now- I wanted you guys to have these" she added, pulling out a small box and handing them to Al.

Al opened the box to find it full of gummy animals.

"Um…thanks Cammy" he said. "Do they do something?"

"Of course they do something, you daft boy!" Cammy said. "But I won't tell you what they do- you'll have to figure that out for yourself" she said, smiling widely and walking out of the compartment.

"Good luck in sorting" she called as she left.

"That was odd" Scorpio said when she left.

"Cammy and James are always a bit odd" Rose said "But they always pull the best pranks"

"I don't think I want to eat these" Al said, putting the gummies in his pocket.

"Do you think they're tricked?" Scorpio asked.

"Cammy and her dad own the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes" Rose said. "Of course they'll be tricked."

Suddenly the train lurched to a halt and a voice came over the announcement again saying that they had arrived.

"We're here!" Rose cried, her voice filled with excitement.

"Yeah" Scorpio said, his eyes growing larger.

Al felt his stomach dropped a bit. This was it.

All three of them got off the train, looking around. Al saw Hagrid standing in the middle of the crowd.

"Firs' year- this way!" he called out. Al, Rose and Scorpio walked up to him.

"Hello Hagrid" Al called out to the giant man.

"'Ello, Al" Hagrid said, looking down at them with a huge smile "'An you too, Rose." His eyes turned to Scorpio.

"Yur Malfoy's kid, arn' ya?' he asked. Scorpio nodded.

"Well ya three get into the boat" he said, pointing to a boat floating lazily in the water. There was already another girl in it.

Al, Rose, and Scorpio all clambered into the boat. The girl who was already sitting looked up at them. Al gasped. She was the most beautiful yet most dangerous looking girl that he had ever seen in his whole life. She had a very wild look to her, with her long, curly golden hair falling down her back. Her eyes were large and fringed with long, thick lashes. At first Al thought that they were black, but they actually were a very dark, midnight blue. Her cheeks were flushed and though she was gorgeous but she had such a hazardous look in her eye that Al felt fear when he looked straight at her.

"Hello" he said to the girl. He looked beside him to see Rose and Scorpio looking at the girl with the same mix of awe and fear that he felt.

"Hello" she said back, her clear voice marked with an Irish accent. "I'm Ruby Rune" she said, holding out her hand.

"Albus Potter" he said, shaking it. The girl's eyes widened.

"Nice to meet you" she said, sounding very formal. She turned towards Rose and Scorpio.

"I'm Rose Weasley" Rose said, her voice sounding a bit strained. Something flashed in Ruby's eyes for a second before she nodded at her and turned to Scorpio.

"Scorpio Malfoy" he mumbled, trying not to look into the girl's dark eyes. Ruby smiled a bit.

"Malfoy? I'm related to you, that means" she said.

"Oh really?" Scorpio said, sounding miserable.

"Yeas, Grandmother told me so. She said that they're a lovely pureblood family" Ruby said, smiling. "In fact, it seems that all of your families are old, pureblood ones" she added.

"What did you do, memorize them?" Rose asked.

"They're aren't that many left" Ruby said as the boat started to go forward "it's a shame, really"

"Why is it a shame?" Al asked. Ruby looked at him with a frown on her face.

"Blood purity is one of the greatest things. It's an honor to be a pureblood" Ruby answered.

"My dad said that kind of thinking only leads to trouble" Scorpio said darkly.

"Well your dad obviously does not know how lucky he is to be party of one of the oldest wizarding families" Ruby sniffed

"Well my mum isn't from a wizarding family" Rose piped "she's a muggle born and she's one of the cleverest witches ever". Ruby looked at Rose in distaste.

"Yeah, and our grandfather said that you should respect muggles. Saud they're ingenious" Al said.

"I guess some people feel that way" Ruby said stiffly "shame" she added. She didn't talk the three of them for the rest of the ride, which they saw as a blessing.

"Oh, look!" Rose cried excitedly as the boat turned the corner. Silhouetted against the dark night sky was a magnificent castle, the lights coming from the window looking like stars in the inky sky. It looked magnificent and welcoming.

"It's just like dad described it" Al whispered, voice filled with awe.

"Beautiful" Scorpio said. The only person that didn't look excited was Ruby, who was looking at the water, a bored look on her face.

The boat came up to the castle and lurched to a stop. The four kids got out of it.

"Well, I'll see you" Ruby said as soon as they got off the boat, walking away from them. She turned around and looked Al in the eye, causing him to feel a bit faint.

"God, she's a mental case" Rose said as Ruby moved away. "Slytherin material, for sure"

"Yeah" Al said, still feeling a bit faint.

* * *

Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and George were all sitting in George's house, having dinner and chatting about their children going off to school for another year. Lily and Hugo were off in the main room, playing with Ember, the newly hatched dragon.

"Our house is going to be quite empty without the boys running around' Ginny said, smiling slightly. "I'm going to enjoy the peace though" she added.

"I know" Hermione said.

"It's going to get very boring around here" George said miserably. It was obvious that he missed his daughter very much, even though she hadn't been gone for a day yet.

"They're probably having the time of their lives, though" Ron said "no parents- and no worries. It's not like in our day when we had to worry about evil all the time"

"We didn't worry about it all the time' Harry said "we still managed to have loads of fun in Hogwarts"

"Yeah" Hermione said, smiling.

Suddenly Harry felt a surge of pain in scar and stopped breathing for a second. He paled and looked around him in shock.

"Harry, what happened?" Ginny asked, looking over at him, worried. Hermione and Ron, who had seen that expression on Harry's face many times before knew at once what was going on.

"Harry, your scar. Did it just hurt?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded his head numbly.

'But…how is that possible?" Ron asked. "You killed him-he's not here anymore!"

"I don't know" Harry said, filling with fear. What if Voldemort was back, somehow? He would go after his children, he knew it. What if he was at Hogwarts, where James and Al were?

"Wait" Ginny said "what are you trying to say? Is You-Know-Who back?"

"That's impossible!" George cried, fear filling his own voice. He had lost Fred last time Voldemort was there, and he didn't even want there to be a chance of him losing Camille now.

"I don't know what's happening" Harry said "my scar hurt and that only happens when Voldemort's around" he said, shaking his head.

"But Harry- how can he be back?" Hermione said, shaking.

"I don't know- but I know someone who might" Harry said.

"Dumbledore" Ron said. Harry nodded.

"Come on" Harry said, getting up, nodding to Ron and Hermione. Both of them got up right away.

"I'm coming too" Ginny said standing up. Harry turned to his wife and shook his head.

"Gin, you take care of Lily and Hugo, okay- I don't want them to worry" he said.

"Harry- last time you were just like this" Ginny said "I am not going to be left behind again. Al and James are my sons too and I'm just as worried about them as you are"

"Ginny, please listen to me. If Voldemort is back then Ron, Hermione, and I are the ones who can take care of him. We're the only ones who know what his weak points are and how to harm him" Harry said, trying to make his wife see things his way.

"Then tell me!" Ginny said "I am your wife and I promised to stick with you through the good times and the bad" she said, holding up her left first, showing him the ring on her finger.

"Then stick with me" Harry said "stick with me by making sure our daughter is safe. Right now she is all that we can protect". Ginny looked at him, her brown eyes searching his face.

"Protect our sons" she said quietly. Harry nodded his head. He kissed her and then turned around, meeting Hermione and Ron near the door. George was standing there, his face pale.

"Harry…make sure Cammy is okay, won't you?" he asked, voice shaking "she's all I have left".

Harry had never seen George act so serious before and it shocked him.

"Of course I will, George" he said. Then he, Ron, and Hermione walked out the door into the night.

"There they go, out saving the world again" Ginny said walking up into the door.

"Yeah" George said "Our lovely middle aged heroes" he added, wiping away a fake tear from his eye.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Hogwarts, Al was standing in line, shaking slightly as the first year kids started to file into the Great Hall. He walked inside of it and looked around in awe. From in front of him, Avery Pall gasped. The hall was magnificent. Hundreds of candles floated lazily in the air, throwing light on the four long tables that graced the room. Al could see Cammy and James whispering to one another at one of the tables. The ceiling of the hall had been enchanted to look like the sky outside and it was dark and inky with a few scattered stars.

"Look- it's the professors" Avery whispered to Al, pointing to a high table. Al; looked up and saw the headmistress. Hagrid was sting on one side of her and Neville was sitting on the other.

"I wonder which table if Hufflepuff's" Avery whispered. Al sighed.

"I bet it's the one in the corner. They look like an odd lot" Avery said, once again starting to go on about Hufflepuff. Only when they brought the sorting hat out did he stop. Al saw that Neville flinched a bit when he saw the hat, and wondered what that was about.

Suddenly the brim of the hat opened and it sang a song, describing all of the houses. Once it was done everybody in the hall started to clap.

"The hat made Hufflepuff sound a hundred times better than it really is" Avery said to Al, who nodded his head, trying to look like he was interested, when in reality- his insides were twisting in knots and he had a hard time understanding what anybody was saying.

Then the names started to be called out.

"Allen, Thomas" was the first person to be sorted. Al watched as the small boy walked up to the hat and put it on. The hall was in silence for about ten seconds before the hat yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table cheered as Thomas walked up to it. The boy was shaking and grinning and Al saw Cammy and James thump the boy on the back when he sat down.

Bridges, Lacy was next and was sorted into Hufflepuff. The table in corner burst into applause.

"Poor girl" Avery said shaking his head. Lacy didn't look too upset, though, as she walked over to the tale, smiling.

Al watched as Dilbert, Adam became the first Ravenclaw and Gelling, Terry became the first Slytherin. Al thought that the Slytherins looked like the nastiest bunch of them all.

Finally, Al heard a familiar name.

"Malfoy, Scorpio"

Scorpio walked down to the hat, looking paler than he naturally was. The Slytherins grinned at each other. They obviously thought that he was about to join them. Scorpio went up and put the hat gently on his head, a nervous look on his face. The hat sat on his head for a good minute before it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR"

The Gryffindor table cheered and the Slytherins looked very confused. Scorpio pulled off the hat with great excitement and went over to the Gryffindor table. He caught Al's eye and gave him a thumbs up. Al returned it as Mure, Jasmine also got sorted into Gryffindor.

Then after what seemed like ages "Pall, Avery" was called. The boy turned around at Al, fingers crossed.

"No Hufflepuff" he said.

"No Hufflepuff" Al repeated, weakly.

Avery walked up to the hat with an air of confidence and shoved it on his head. The hat stayed on him for only a few seconds when it cried out "HUFFLEPUFF"

Avery took off the hat and looked at it, stunned. Al wondered what the boy would do. On the train he had said that if he was sorted into Hufflepuff he would cut the hat in two, burn the pieces, and then toss them in the lake.

But instead of doing any of then, Avery just shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the cheering Hufflepuff table. Al caught Rose's eyes and they both shared a giggle.

But Al's amusement was cut short a second later when his name was called.

"Potter, Albus"

The crowd of students hushed as Al walked towards the hat. It was so silent that he could swear he could hear his own heart beating. In the eleven years that he had lived there had not been a moment as nerve-racking as this. He went to the stool where the hat was and picked it up with shaking hands. The last thing he saw before he pulled the hat on his head was James and Camille, both looking at him with eager smiles.

The hat smelled old and musty and Al wrinkled his nose a bit.

_So, Albus Potter_ the hat said, causing Al to jump a bit. _I had the pleasure of sorting both your mother and your father many years ago._

_Father said I could ask you not to be in a certain house_ Albus said. He heard the hat chuckle.

_Oh did he it said. Well then, young Albus which house do you not want to be in?_

_Not Slytherin_ Al said, _I'd rather take Hufflepuff than Slytherin._

_Just like your father. Your much more like your father than you even know. And just like him you would do great in Slytherin. But Gryffindor did him much good, and maybe it will do you good as well._

_It will, it will_ Albus said quickly.

_Okay, then- just like your namesake you will also be in_ "GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted. Al took off the hat quickly and looked up just as the Gryffindor table burst into applause. He rushed over to them and sat down next to Scorpio.

"Good job" Scorpio said to him.

"I know you would do it" James said, smiling. Camille went over to him.

"Do you have the gummies I gave you?" she asked. Al nodded and gave them to her.

"Thanks, I wanted you to hold them for me" she said.

"Why couldn't you bring them in yourself?" Scorpio asked the girl. Camille smiled.

"Let's just say, after what James and I did last year- the professors check us thoroughly before the banquet to make sure we're not carrying anything" she said, going back to where she was sitting before.

"I don't think I like the look of this" Al said, as he turned his head back towards the sorting.

After a few moments "Rune, Ruby" was called out.

The crowd hushed once more as Ruby glided over to the hat. She moved very gracefully, her hair falling behind her in a golden waterfall.

"Do you suppose she's part veela?" James asked as the girl went over to the hat.

"She could be, but look at her eyes- they look so evil" Camille whispered. James nodded his head in agreement.

Ruby put on the hat and waited for a half a moment before it cried out "SLYTHERIN"

Al felt Scorpio give off a sigh of relief, and he couldn't help but feel thankful as well. She wasn't in their house, and he felt a lot safer because of it.

Soon there were only three more kids standing in the line.

"Weasley, Rose"

Al saw Rose walk over to the hat, not looking too worried. She put in on her head and after only a second or two it shouted out "GRYFFINDOR!"

Al and Scorpio cheered along with the rest of the table as Rose came over and sat across from them.

"That didn't take long" Al said. Rose nodded her head.

"What did it say to you?" Scorpio asked.

"It said that I should be in Gryffindor because I needed to help my friends" she said.

"What does that mean?" Al asked. Rose shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know- but I'm in Gryffindor, so that hat could have told me that I would have to battle a hundred hippogriffs and I wouldn't have cared" she said.

The remaining two kids got sorted and the sorting hat was taken away. Al looked over at the professors table. He saw a house elf whisper something in the headmistress's ear. The headmistress looked at it in shock and immediately got up and addressed the crowd.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. I am afraid to say that I must attend some business, so I will not be able to give my customary speech. I would just like to say that I am glad to meet all the first year's and would like to urge the students to please not do anything that would disrupt the peace of the banquet" she said, looking directly at Cammy and James, who grinned widely. "I would also like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Amber Maywood"

A tall woman stood up. She looked very regal, wearing dark purple robes and standing very straight. Her hair was brown and pulled up into a bun. Al saw that the ladies hair was graying and that there were a few lines around her bright, twinkling eyes.

"She looks nice" Scorpio stated. Al and Rose nodded.

"Professor Maywood was kind enough to leave Australia, where she has been for many years, and come back to her old alma mater to teach." Minerva said "and we all should show her our greatest appreciation. Now everybody- have a good banquet and rest up" she added.

And with that, the headmistress swept out of the hall and the food magically appeared on the tables.

"Where do you think she went off to?' Al asked Rose and Scorpio. Both of them shrugged.

"I don't know, but it looked like she was in a huge hurry' Rose said.

"Ah well, we'll worry about that later" Scorpio said, looking at the food "right now, I'm starved!"

* * *

Minerva walked down the hallway to her office, her worry growing more and more as she went on. She finally reached the statue that led to her quarters and saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron standing in front of it.

"Hello" she said to them, looking pale and shaking a bit.

"Hello Minerva" Hermione said, trying to sound bright.

"Is it true what Kreacher said?" She asked "That you believe the Dark Lord is back?"

Harry nodded his head solemnly and Minerva gave off a strangled cry.

"We need to talk to Dumbledore" Ron said. The lady nodded her head and turned to the gargoyle statue.

"Albus" she said, and the statue swung open. The four of them climbed up the stairs and entered the office.

The office looked almost exactly like it did when Dumbledore had been headmaster. Apparently, Minerva had not wanted to move any of his things.

Harry, though, did not take the time to look around and reminisce. He instead went over to the two portraits hanging behind Minerva's desk.

In one sat Albus Dumbledore, looking at the crowd of people in the room with am expression on mild interest.

"Why hello" he said as the group approached him. "What do I owe this visit to?"

"I think Voldemort is back" Harry said quickly. Dumbledore's expression immediately darkened.

"Why do you say that, Harry?" he asked.

"My scar hurt again today" Harry said quickly.

"Why that is a very bad sign indeed" Dumbledore said, frowning even more.

"But how is this possible, Albus- Harry killed the Dark lord" Minerva asked.

"I am afraid that he might have been brought back" Dumbledore said.

"Brought back?" Hermione asked.

"The Resurrection Stone" Dumbledore said, causing Hermione, Harry, and Ron to gasp.

"One of the Hallows? But how did anybody get it?" Ron asked.

"I left it in the forest!" Harry said. Minerva looked at them in confusion.

"Well" Dumbledore said "Hagrid found it in the forest when he was out looking for unicorns a few years back. He brought it to me because he remembered me with it once. I told him to take it and drop it in the ocean"

"You told him to drop the ring in the ocean?" Harry asked amazed "why didn't you tell him to transfigure it into something and then hide it?"

"Hagrid does not have that type of power. He is doing his magic with a broken wand hidden inside of an umbrella!" Dumbledore said "and I didn't want anybody else to know about this, because I didn't want to raise suspicion."

"But why did you want him to toss it in the Ocean? You should have known it would wash up somewhere, that someone would find it!" Ron cried.

"Just as I knew that if we left it in the forest that someone would have found it" Dumbledore said.

"Yeah, but at least Hagrid was the one to find it that time- not some crazy person who uses it to bring back Voldemort!" Hermione said.

"But, Voldemort really isn't back; though" Harry said "he's just a shadow of his real self"

"Yes" Dumbledore said "but, if he is having somebody else doing all the spell work for him, he is still as dangerous, maybe even more so"

"Well, is Hogwarts safe?" Ron asked.

"I do not think Voldemort will come back to Hogwarts. For now, it is completely safe" Dumbledore said.

"Good" Hermione said "but we have to find out who has the stone" she said.

"I bet whoever it is a terribly powerful wizard" Harry said "and I also have a feeling that whoever it is, we'll find out about him soon."

Suddenly the door burst open and Filch walked in, holding James and Camille by their collars.

"James!" Harry said as he saw his son

"Camille!" Hermione yelped as she saw the girl.

"Dad?" James asked, confused "what in Merlin are you doing here?"

"I could be asking the same thing of you two" Minerva said, looking at them with raised eyebrows.

"These two trouble makers set off fireworks and turned the great hall into a zoo" Filch said, looking at the two kids as though they were specks of dirt.

"You did what?" Hermione said sternly.

'How did you turn the Great Hall into a zoo?" Harry asked. Camille took out the box of animal gummies.

"If you eat one of these, you turn into whatever animal the gummy was" she said "this is the first product that I created by myself" she added, proudly.

"Brilliant!" Ron said. Minerva shook her head, but her mouth was tugged up in a half smile.

"Both of you march on off to your common rooms. I'll forgive you just this once" she said "but next time you do anything like this, it'll be detention and loss of house points"

"Thank you professor" James and Cammy cried, running out of the room.

"James- be careful okay. Look after yourself and Albus" Harry cried out to his son.

"Sure thing, Dad!" James cried back as the door closed behind him and Cammy.

"Albus?' Dumbledore asked, looking down at Harry, who nodded his head.

"My youngest son, Albus Severus Potter" he said. Dumbledore smiled brightly at Harry and turned to the portrait beside him.

"Did you hear that, Severus?" he asked. Snape's portrait looked down at the, his usual sneer softened just a tad bit.

"I'm flattered" he said, though his voice was tinged with irony.

"Thanks" Harry said, smiling and shaking his head.

"Harry, we would get back- Ginny will start to worry" Hermione said. Ron nodded.

"George too" he added.

"Well I guess this is goodbye" Harry said to Dumbledore's portrait.

"Yes, goodbye Harry. I have a feeling that you will be coming to visit me soon, though" he said.

"I'll come to see you as soon as we figure out who has the stone' Harry said.

"I'll be looking forward to it" Dumbledore said, turning to Hermione and Ron and saying goodbye to them as well.

"I guess you won't be telling me what this stone is" Minerva said to the three of them as she walked then out of her office.

"It's Dumbledore's secret" Harry said. Minerva shook her head.

"I figured. He is usually a secretive man" she said as Hermione, Ron and Harry left her office. "Good night you three, and good luck" she said.

The three of them stood in the hallway for a few moments, processing what had happened.

"So where do we start looking for our mystery wizard?' Ron asked.

"I'm pretty sure the library will have books on powerful wizards of our age" Hermione said.

"I guess it's a start" Harry said as they started to walk away.

"A good of a start as any" Ron added in as they crossed the main hall and out of the doorway. Little did they know that the were walking away from the stone and Voldemort with every step they took.

**A/N: Okay, so how was that? Please review and tell me what you think!**


	3. The Start of Classes and Revenge

**Okay, so here is the third chapter for you. It's a long one, and I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter Three: The Start of Classes and Revenge

Al woke up early the next day, feeling as though he was a train wreck of emotions. He knew he should feel happy- he was in Gryffindor, the house he had always wanted; he had two great friends; and classes with Neville and Hagrid to look forward to. But there was something that was nagging at him, something that worried him greatly. First there was the Ruby, there seemed to be something dangerously strange about that girl, and it wasn't only the cruel look in her eyes. Also, if what James had told him the night before had been true, his dad had come to visit the headmistress- which could never be a good sign. His dad might not have told him very much about what had happened when he was younger, but Al knew enough to know that wherever his father was, danger was too.

Al got out of his bed and pulled on his robes. He moved over to the window seat at the end of the room and sat on it, looking out as the dark sky, shot through with the weak red sparks of the impeding sunrise.

"What's going on?' he whispered, to no one in particular, wishing that he knew what his dad had done all those years back when he was in Hogwarts. It would probably help him understand what was going on now. The community might have been in peace for nineteen years, but Al felt that the peace was about to be shattered. His mother had always said that he was an intuitive boy, and his raw feelings had never let him down before.

Suddenly, Al heard noise from behind him and whipped around so fast that his neck hurt. Scorpio was getting out of bed and pulling his robe on as well. He saw Al sitting in front of the window and walked over to him.

"What are you doing up this early?' Al whispered to Scorpio as he sat down next to him.

"I always get up early" Scorpio said "what about you?"

"I guess I'm worried" Al answered.

"About classes? They haven't even started yet!"

"No, not classes" Al answered quickly "it's something else"

"It's that girl, isn't it? Ruby" Scorpio asked, also looking out the window.

"Yeah" Al said "Do you feel something is strange about her as well?"

"Well, of course I do. Everybody does!" Scorpio answered. "But she's in Slytherin, so we won't have to worry about her"

"Well you might, she said she was related to you" Al said. Scorpio shook his head.

"Probably not" he said "my dad had a falling off with the rest of the family a while ago. My mum was muggle born, and the rest of our family didn't approve of their marriage. He still doesn't speak to them"

"Well, hopefully we won't run into her in school" Al said. Scorpio nodded his head in agreement.

* * *

But, unfortunately, that was not to happen. A couple of hours later Al did run into Ruby, literally. He had been in a roaring discussion with Rose over broomsticks when he had run head first into a person, causing his satchel to fall down and his parchment and quills to fall out. Al looked up hastily to apologize to the person he had run into and found himself looking into a pair of midnight blue eyes. 

The apology caught in Al's throat as Ruby's eyes bored holes into him.

"I…I….I…"he stammered.

Ruby just gave him a secretive half smile and flounced away, her golden hair whipping behind her, not offering to help Al pick up his things nor berating him for carelessly running into him. She moved with a graceful indifference and left everybody in the hallway staring after her with odd expressions on their faces, as though they had been hit on the head with heavy clubs.

"That girl…is not human" Rose whispered as she and Scorpio bent down to help Al pick up his things.

"What do you mean?' Scorpio asked, as he thrust a quill into Al's satchel, still staring at the end of hallway with a gazed expression on his face.

"I mean, there is something about her, that doesn't seem human" Rose said.

"You mean you think she's a veela?" Al asked.

"She's no veela" a voice from above them said darkly.

They looked up to find Camille, who was dragging a very gazed looking James by his robe sleeve. She looked worried, and her light blue eyes were flashing. Camille was normally a very pretty girl, but when she was worried or angry and her eyes lit up, she looked even more beautiful.

"What do you mean she's not a veela?" Rose asked.

"I've seen a veela before" Cammy said "and this girl is defiantly not one of them."

"But she can't be just a normal girl" Rose said.

"I know…but what exactly she is remains a mystery to me" Camille said.

"Nothing a trip to the library won't remedy" Rose said.

'Well not now" Al added in, standing up "Let's go get breakfast- I'm starved"

"Yeah, and we need to get our schedules" said James, who had finally regained his senses.

The group walked to the great Hall in silence, mulling over the odd Slytherin girl that had pranced in and messed everything up.

Breakfast was quite simple compared to the feast the night before and Al piled his plate high with food though he didn't eat much of it.

"What's the matter? Though you said you were starved" Scorpio asked as he was drowning his sausages in ketchup.

"Don't let that crazy girl worry you" Rose said, stuffing her own face with eggs "Oh- look!"

Al looked up to see the tall woman that had been introduced to them last night walking up and down the table, handing out schedules. She was, Al decided as she came around to them, a very kindly looking woman with bright eyes. He smiled at her as she handed him his schedule and she smiled back, though her smile looked a bit tight.

"Oh, look- we have double potions with Ravenclaw first" Rose said, looking at her own schedule. Al looked down at his schedule and nodded.

"And then Herebology…with the Slytherins" Al groaned.

"At least we'll have Neville there" Rose said brightly.

"And then we have Defense against the Dark Arts" Scorpio said.

"I heard the new teacher was a nut" Camille said to them.

"She seems pretty normal to me" Al said, frowning.

"Well we have her first, so we'll see how crazy she really is" James said, looking entirely too excited over the prospect of having a mentally unstable teacher.

"Well our classes start in fifteen minutes" Rose said "And I have no idea where potions is held."

"In the dungeons" Camille said.

"Hogwarts had dungeons?" Rose asked, looking aghast.

"Yeah- that's where they keep the Slytherins" Camille said happily. Al shuddered. Anything that had to do with the Slytherins, he wanted to stay very far away from.

"I guess we should be going then" Rose said, grabbing Scorpio, who was looking at the mountain of toast with hungry eyes.

"I'm still not full" Scorpio whined as the three of them made their way down into the lower parts.

"You ate three plates full of food!" Rose said, looking at Scorpio with wary eyes.

"I'm a growing boy" he said, shuffling on beside them. They moved deeper and deeper into the castle and the air around them seemed to get colder.

The dungeons were not a very pleasant place at all. The walls were all stone and the lighting was either cast by candles, which gave the walls a dull and creepy appearance; or harsh green lights, which Al thought looked even scarier.

"There it is" Rose said, pointing to a room that a group of first years were walking into. Al rushed after Rose, glad to get out of the creepy hallway.

The room itself looked a little better than the outside. The walls were still cold stone, but there were merrily simmering cauldrons of potions leaning against them, which covered the room in jewel tones hazes and filled it with a very pleasant scent. At one end of the room stood a short desk, and behind it sat a short, fat man with a mane of well groomed gray hair and a perfectly tailored set of robes. He was sitting on a comfortable looking chair and his small feet were resting upon a small, soft ottoman.

"I guess that's the professor" Scorpio whispered as the three of them went up to a group of empty cauldrons placed around the room. Rose started to get out all of her items and Al and Scorpio followed in suit.

"That's professor Slughorn" Rose said, looking at the man "dad's told me all about him. Said he was a very odd man"

Suddenly professor Slughorn stood up and faced his students, a wide, expectant smile on his face.

"Good morning" he cried out and was met by a few mumbled 'Good mornings' in return.

"It seems that we all are still a bit tired" he said, more to himself than to the students. "My name is Professor Slughorn and I am the Potions Master here at Hogwarts"

Rose smiled smugly at Al and Scorpio.

"I hope, that over the next few years that you will be learning under me that you will get an acute and comprehensive understanding of the delicate art of potion making" he continued.

"Delicate art?' Scorpio asked under his breath. Rose threw him a dirty look.

"I know that it is your first day at this school, but I feel as though now would be an excellent time to try a very simple potion; just so that I can gage what level you are at" he said, flicking his wand. Suddenly words started to appear on the board behind Slughorn's desk. Al looked at it closely. It was a list of instructions to make a potion.

"This one isn't in your book, but it is a very plain one and it was quite the lovely aftereffects" he said excitedly. "Hop to it now!"

The students all quickly got started to work on their ingredients. Al turned to his left to see Scorpio starting to shred his beetle nuts to pieces, using a long, thin silver dagger.

"Are you sure that's the proper way to cut them?" Al asked. Scorpio looked at him and grinned.

"It sure is the fastest way" he answered back. Al shrugged his shoulders and started attacking his own beetle nuts in the same fashion.

"Both of you look like barbarians" Rose said to them as she delicately tossed her finely chopped product into her cauldron.

"We're chopping beetle nuts, not painting a masterpiece, Rose" Scorpio said "who cares what techniques we use".

Meanwhile Slughorn was moving from group to group, talking to the students. He made his way over to Al, Rose, and Scorpio with a huge smile on his face.

"Hello children!" he said coming up to them "My god!" he said looking at Albus, an expression of fake shock plastered on his face "Could this be the son of Harry Potter?' he asked, his voice a bit too loud, in Al's opinion.

"Um…yeah" Al said, turning a bright pink. He could feel the gaze of all his classmates on him "I'm Albus Potter"

"Albus Potter! What a lovely name you have! What a lovely boy you are!" Slughorn cried, making Al blush even deeper. Beside him, Rose started to laugh, trying to pretend like she was having a coughing fit. Slughorn turned to her.

"And are you a Weasley, my dear?" Slughorn asked, sounding just as excited.

"Yes" Rose said, trying not to laugh. "Rose Weasley"

"But that means that your grandfather…your grandfather…" Slughorn said, trying to contain his sheer joy.

"Is the Minister of Magic, yeah" Rose finished for him. A couple of the other students in the room gasped. "He's Al's grandfather as well" Rose added quickly. Al gave her a scathing look.

"Really? So you two are cousins?" Slughorn asked.

"My mum is Rose's dad's sister" Al said.

"Well that is fabulous!" Slughorn said, his eyes gleaming "you two must come join me for tea one of these days" he said before turning to Scorpio.

"Ah, Draco's son I believe" he said.

"Scorpio Malfoy" he said. Slughorn nodded his head.

"A piece of work, your father was, when he was at school. He did some great things later on in his life, though." Slughorn said "a prodigious potion maker, he is"

Scorpio nodded his head, not daring to say anything else. Slughorn muttered to himself for a while before giving the Al, Rose, and Scorpio one last smile and another invitation to tea; and then walking off to the next group.

"What a nutter" Rose muttered, stirring her potion.

"Tell me about it" Al said, dropping his mutilated beetle nuts into his own potion and watching it go a sickly green color.

"I don't think it's supposed to look like that, mate" Scorpio said, staring down at Al's potion which was now starting to bubble.

"You forgot to add the sprig of mint in" Rose hissed, tossing some of her own leaves into Al's potion, which immediately stopped bubbling and turned the normal lime color it was supposed to be.

"Thanks" Al said, starting to stir his potion, while thinking about what Slughorn had said to Scorpio.

"Why did he say your dad was a piece of work?" he asked. Scorpio shrugged his shoulders.

"I told you I had a suspicion that my dad used to be evil." He said "he's changed now, though, I think. He's just a boring old potions master"

"Didn't he create that new werewolf potion?" Rose asked. Scorpio nodded his head.

"So that means that you have natural potions skills" Al said. Scorpio looked down at his potion, which was the consistency of mud.

"I guess not" he said, gingerly tapping his potion with his rod and looking at Rose apprehensively. Rose looked into his potion and sighed.

"Just mix it one more time" she said. Scorpio did so and his potion turned back into its normal texture.

"Thanks" he said "how did you know all of this?" he asked.

"Dad said that I inherited my mum's brains" Rose said proudly "and she was at the top of her class"

Suddenly Slughorn clapped his hands together.

"My, my" he said "look at the time! Class is almost over! I'll be coming around and checking your potions" he said.

Slughorn went around and looked at everybody's potions, smiling at some of them and grimacing at others. Just as Slughorn was about to come to the table where Al was, Scorpio accidentally knocked a bit of crushed frog spine into his potion, which started to shine a bright green.

"Oh no, what did I do?" he cried. Rose looked down at his potion and shrugged.

"I don't know how to fix it" she whispered. Scorpio looked down miserably at his potion as Slughorn came over to their table.

He looked at Rose's potion and smiled at her.

"What a fine potion" he said, causing Rose to blush once more. He then turned to Al's, which had turned a bit murkier.

"Hmmm…needs a bit more mint I suspect" he said, looking at it "a good attempt, nevertheless".

He then turned to Scorpio's potion and looked at it with a strange expression on his face.

"I have never seen such a sheen in a wart removal potion before" Slughorn said, looking at it "what extra ingredient did you put in it?"

"Crushed Frog spine" Scorpio mumbled.

"Why- how ingenious!" Slughorn cried, ladling some of the potion into a glass bottle he had pulled out of his robes. "That would quicken the effects of the potion, of course!"

Scorpio looked at his potion like it was some odd creature.

"You mean…the spine helped?" he asked, awed.

"Of course it did my boy" Slughorn said heartily "you have gained your father's skill at potions, you have" he said, clapping Scorpio on the back and moving towards the next group of children.

"I guess I should start knocking stuff into my potions from now on" Scorpio said, with a dazed smile on his face "it's obviously my talent"

"More like sheer luck" Rose said, shaking her head.

"Aw, don't be jealous, Rose" Scorpio said "I could drop some of this stuff into your potion" he added, holding up a bottle of mysterious, squirming bugs. Al let out a laugh.

"You keep your clumsy self away from my potions" Rose said, packing away all of her things.

Slughorn soon called the class to a close and Al, Rose, and Scorpio rushed out of the room before Slughorn could embarrass them even more.

They climbed up the steps and went into the main hall.

"I'm glad to be out of the dungeons" Al said "They were so gloomy!"

"Yeah" Rose said "imagine having your common room down there"

"At least our next class is outdoors" Scorpio said, causing Al to remember that his next class would be with the Slytherins.

"Hey look- there's Cammy and James!" Rose called out- pointing to the other side of the hall, waving. Camille saw the three of them and walked over.

"How was your first class?" she asked.

"Brilliant" Scorpio said, grinning widely.

"Slughorn's a bit of a psycho" Rose added.

"Yeah, he is" James said, coming up to them.

"How was Defense?" Al asked "Is the professor really crazy?"

"She's absolutely mad" James said.

"Completely off her rocker" Camille added in.

"Really? Even worse than Slughorn?" Scorpio asked.

"Oh, you both will see later on today" Camille said "right now, we're running late to charms and Flitwick goes insane if you're late. You three have fun in Herbology" she called out to them.

"Yeah, give Neville my love" James cried out, in the perfect imitation of his mum. Both of them lumbered off, laughing.

"Mad- both of them" Al muttered to himself as he, Rose, and Scorpio walked outside the doors to the greenhouses.

There were already a group of students standing outside the greenhouse when they arrived. Al sighed in relief when he noticed that Ruby was not in the group.

"Maybe she won't show up" Rose said, trying to sound optimistic. And by the time class had started, Ruby was nowhere to be seen. Al, Rose, and Scorpio sat on a bench in the middle of the greenhouse. Al thought it was odd be surrounded by various, odd looking plants the whole class. He turned to see Scorpio backing slowly away from a particularly vicious looking plant at the end of the table.

"Hello, students!" a voice from the back of the room called. Everybody turned their heads to see Neville, who was walking down the aisle of the desks, holding two large boxes. He placed the boxes down on his desk at the end of the room and turned to the children, smiling.

"I'm professor Longbottom" he said. The girls at the table next to Al's started to giggle, but where silenced by a dark glare that Rose threw at them.

"Welcome to Herbology- can anybody tell me what the exact definition of it is?" he asked. Rose immediately raised her hand, but so did another student at a table in the corner.

"Um, yes" Neville said, nodding towards the boy in the corner. Rose lowered her hand, looking sullen.

"Herbology is the study of all forms of flora in order to better understand their uses and environments" the boy said

"Very good" Neville beamed, "take ten points for Gryffindor. What is your name?" he asked.

"Thomas Allen" he said, smiling widely. Thomas was a tall boy with messy brown hair and smiling sea green eyes.

"It seems as though you have some competition" Al whispered to Rose, who just frowned.

"Well today, we will study the very rare Grundy Flower" Neville said. Rose and Al shared a secret smile. Luna had found the flower seeds when her and Neville where on vacation and had planted them near Hagrid's cabbage patch.

"Can anybody tell me what a Grundy Flower is?" he asked. Rose put her hand in the air, trying not to smile too largely at the confused expression if Thomas Allen's face.

"Yeas" Neville said to her, a smile on his face and a knowing look in his eye.

"A Grundy flower if a plant that only blooms when it senses happiness" Rose said "it has a very pretty flower that can be used in many different forms of medicinal potions…it also keeps Nargals out of sight" she added.

"Well, that last part hasn't been proven yet" Neville said, blushing a ferocious shade of red "but the rest of it is perfectly true- another ten points to Gryffindor!"

Neville then went over and opened one of the boxes, taking out the Grundy Flowers, which had been planted into decorative pots. He dropped one of the flowers at each table.

"What I want for you to do today is to try get the plants to open their flowers. You must think of happy thoughts, and don't let your mind wander!" he said, walking up to the front of the room again "then when it releases its flower I want you to pick them and toss them in the containers at the end of your table"

Al looked at the Grundy Flower, which seemed to have the appearance of a dried up weed.

"Not a very nice looking thing, is it?" Scorpio said.

"That's not a happy thought!" Rose said to him "Come on, let's get this flower open before Thomas's group does"

Scorpio shook his head and, but closed his eyes in concentration. Al was about to follow in suit when the door to the greenhouse was flung open. Everybody's eyes turned to the door, where Ruby Rune was standing.

"Oh Merlin, she had to show up" Al moaned, as the girl made her way down the aisle.

"She's going to get into so much trouble! She's nearly twenty minutes late to class!" Scorpio said, as Ruby walked up to Neville, who looked quite surprised.

"I'm sorry I'm late professor" Ruby said, her voice low and soft, as it always was. But this time when she spoke, there was something else in her voice, something that sounded sweet and hazy. Ruby also seemed to be emitting some sort of glow, and the people around her suddenly looked very dazed.

"No…no problem there, my girl" Neville said, his own eyes glassing over "just a few minutes tardy"

"I hope I didn't disrupt anything' she said in that same voice.

"No…no bother, Grundy flowers, you see….just find a station" Neville said, hardly making any sense "There's a space by Albus…"

"What is he doing, is he off his rocker!" Albus said angrily. From beside him Scorpio gasped.

"It's not his fault. Ruby is an enchantress" he whispered to them.

"An enchantress?" Rose said, looking at Scorpio with raised eyebrows. Scorpio nodded.

"Yeah, one of mum's school friends was an enchantress. They have this thing where they can persuade people to do whatever they want. They're like veelas, but more powerful"

"Just great" Al said "the most evil girl in school and she has to be an enchantress"

Ruby moved to Al's table and sat down in the empty seat next to him. Al knew that it would be impossible to think of any happy thoughts when she was sitting next to him.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Ruby asked.

"Grundy Flowers" Rose mumbled. 'We're trying to make them bloom, so you have to act happy around them"

"Can I see the flower?" Ruby asked. Al frowned and grabbed the flower in front of him, shoving it at the girl. Ruby took it from him, and as she did so, her hand brushed against his arm. Al experienced the same faint, odd feeling that he had when she had stared at him. Ruby's eyes went wide and she yanked herself away from him. Scorpio and Rose looked at the girl warily. There was some new expression in her eyes- the same expression that had been in theirs just seconds ago; fear.

"I have to go" Ruby whispered, sounding as though she had just gotten beaten up with a bat. She stood up so fast that her chair toppled over, causing everybody in the room to look up at them.

Ruby took one last look at Al; her face still contorted in fear, and flew out of the room without offering any explanation, leaving a room full of stunned students in her wake.

"What was that about?" Scorpio asked, after what seemed like an hour of silence.

"I have no idea; did you say anything to her, Al?" Rose asked. Al shook his head, still feeling faint. Something had happened, but he didn't know what in the world it was.

"Um...get back to your flowers" Neville called out to the students, trying not to sound as shocked as he looked. A student had just stormed out of his class and nobody had any idea why.

Al just sat at his table for the rest of the class- wondering why Ruby had looked so afraid of him. It was usually the other way around.

Scorpio and Rose, on the other hand, were trying to muster up all the happy thoughts they could, trying to get the flower to bloom. By the end of the class, they had about fifteen blooms in their bucket, which Rose was quick to note, was one more than what Thomas's group had collected. Neville looked pleased at their progress.

"It was an unusual class today" he said as he dismissed the students "but I think that everybody was quite productive, so I thank you for not getting distracted by your fellow classmate"

Al stormed out of the greenhouse, followed by Scorpio and Rose. He was still brooding and had an odd expression on his face. Suddenly Rose stopped and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Listen Al. What is wrong with you? And don't try to hide anything from us" she said, looking him firmly in the eyes.

"It's Ruby" he said.

"Listen, Al, she's a mental case, but that's not a reason to be so gloomy" Scorpio said.

"It's not that" Al said "it's the fact that she looked afraid of me"

"Well, she did" Rose admitted.

"Why should she be afraid of me? I've never done anything to anybody in my life!" Al cried out.

"She's mad, Al!" Rose said, sounding exasperated. "That's why she acts odd"

"I don't think it's that" Al said slowly.

"You're thinking too much into it' Scorpio interjected "I don't think we should worry about Ruby unless she tries to hurt us or something"

"Yeah…I guess…" he said. But there was something else bothering Al, something that he didn't feel like telling the other two. But when Ruby had bent down to reach for the plant, Al saw that she was wearing a ring suspended from a thin silver chain around her neck. The ring looked severely cracked, but there was a symbol on the side of it that looked oddly familiar to Al.

But he put that thought in the back of his mind as he entered the castle with Rose and Scorpio. Instead, he started to wonder about his next class and the mysterious Defense Against Dark Arts teacher.

"Do you really suppose that she really is as batty as everybody says she is?" Scorpio asked as they walked to the room.

"I guess we'll find out" Rose said as they entered the room.

Al decided that the room didn't look as odd as it could have…but it was close. The walls, which looked like they were originally made of stone, and been completely covered by various posters of different evil looking animals and old, famous wizards who Al assumed were famous. Against the back wall stood a giant set of shelves that were filled to the brim with dark detectors and various swirling liquids in bottles. There were strings of odd plants hanging across the ceiling and on the professor's desk was something that looked frighteningly like a skull of a house elf, or a small person.

Al thought that with all the stuff everywhere, it should give the room a very crowded feeling- but the professor had arranged everything in a slightly obsessively neat order, nothing was out of place. Even the books that were placed in the large bookshelf behind the professor's desk were put in alphabetical order.

"She's a bit of a neat nut, isn't she?" Rose asked putting her books down on one of the desks. Scorpio and Al also put their books down and sat in their seats.

"I wonder where she is" Al said, as he continued to look around the room.

"I wonder what those plants are" Scorpio added, pointing to the strings of leaves that hung from the ceiling.

"They are Maplesap leaves" a voice from next to them said. The three of them turned to see Thomas Allen, who was leaning lazily against one of the desks next to them.

"They have special properties used to…"

"Ward off evil creatures, such as vampires and inferni" Rose finished, glaring at the boy.

"Thomas Allen" he said, holding his hand out to her, eyebrows raised.

"Rose Weasley" she said primly, reluctantly shaking his hand.

Both of them stared down each other for a while before nodding stiffly and sitting down in their desks.

"What was that all about?' Scorpio asked Rose, who looked as though she was fuming.

"He thinks he's smarter than me" she said, her tone biting.

"He does know a lot" Scorpio said, just to make her mad. Rose glared at him.

"Watch your mouth, Malfoy" he said before opening her Defense book, which she started to pour over. From the corner of her eye, Al could see Thomas doing the same thing.

"I don't get them" Al whispered to Scorpio, who nodded in turn.

"I know" he said "I swear that they…"

BANG!!

Everybody in the room jumped about two inches as the loud sound came from the back of the room. Al thought it sounded like an explosion. He swiveled around in his seat to see the professor standing there, looking calm and serene.

"Did that scare you?' she asked the students as she walked up to the front of them room. They just stared up at her.

"The first lesson we will be learning in this class" she said slowly "is concurring fear". Her voice was soft and slow, and she pronounced every work very precisely. Her long, gray speckled brown hair was once again pulled up into a bun and she was wearing a set of very fine looking blue robes.

"The Dark Arts" she said as she reached her desk "are merely extensions of our own fear. Once we learn to fear no more, then they cannot effect us". Al noticed as she said this, she grabbed the small skull on her desk.

Al turned to look at Rose, who was staring at the teacher with a mixture of awe and disbelief.

"My name is professor Maywood and my job over the next years is to teach you how to rid yourselves of fear, overcome pressure, and overpower the Dark Arts" she said, her bright eyes scanning the room as she spoke "it is not a simple feat, learning how to defend oneself, nor it is a glamorous one. At times you may scream, you may cry, you may even faint in fright, but you will learn"

She suddenly pointed her wand at one of the students.

"Levucorpsus" she said, causing the poor girl to fly up in the air.

"You will always have to be on guard" Professor Maywood said as she walked around the classroom, wand in the air, the girl flying behind her. "The dark wizards will not wait for your permission to attack you, and you must be prepared for everything"

She set the girl back down in her desk and stood in front of the classroom once more.

"The second lesson we will learn is trust" she said, raising her wand once again. Every student in the room flinched, waiting to be thrown up in the air. But Professor Maywood did not point it at any one. Instead she waved it at the door, which locked.

"I want each of you to introduce yourselves to the class- full names and I also want you to tell me your greatest fear." she said "all of you are Gryffindors and you will have to get to know one another over the next seven years. By themselves, a wizard is nothing, together, wizards are undefeatable"

So one by one the students got up and introduced themselves. Al saw Rose huff a little a bit as Thomas stood up.

"I'm Thomas Mason Allen" he said "and my worst fear is failing"

"That's not much of a fear, is it?' rose whispered to Al, who shrugged his shoulders.

Soon it was Rose's turn.

"My name is Rose Molly Weasley and my worst fear is heights" she said.

"That's not much of a fear, is it?" Scorpio asked Al, in a rather good impression of Rose's voice. Al suppressed a laugh and Rose frowned at both of them.

Next it was Al's turn.

"Uh…hi. I'm Albus Severus Potter" he said. He saw Professor Maywood flinch a little as he said his name. "and my worst fear is losing someone I love"

He quickly sat down and the professor stared at him for a little while before nodding at Scorpio, who stood up.

"My name is Scorpius Leo Malfoy, though I go by Scorpio. My greatest fear is banshees" he said sitting down.

"Scorpius?" Rose asked. Scorpio turned pink and nodded

"And I thought Scorpio was bad" she said, though it was obvious that she was kidding with him judging by the laughing tone of her voice.

Soon everybody had introduced themselves and professor Maywood nodded her head.

For the rest of the class the students dodged the professor's spells while she kept prompting them to go into in depth discussions about their fears.

Finally class was over and professor Maywood dismissed them, giving them each a ten inch essay on conquering fear to do.

"Well, it's official- that professor is completely barking" Scorpio said.

"Oh really, Scorpius?" Rose asked, smiling hugely. Scorpio looked at her angrily.

"I thought she was okay" Al said suddenly. Both Rose and Scorpio looked down at him.

"Really?" Rose asked.

"Well, she's insane, no doubt about that" Al said "but some of the things she said made sense"

"Al- she lifted Mary Macomb into the air like a rag doll!' Scorpio said, shaking his head.

"Well, I said she was insane" Al told him as they went off.

* * *

In another part of the castle, Ruby Rube was going crazy. She rushed up to the third floor, to the place where her grandmum told her the room or requirement was. She walked past the same place three times, repeating one thing over and over again in her mind. 

"I need a place to talk to my master…I need a place to talk to my master"

Suddenly a door appeared and Ruby rushed into it. The room it led to looked like an old library, tall shelves of books and large fireplace with a merrily dancing fire and two large chairs in front of it. Over the fireplace was a portrait of an old wizard, who was currently snoozing.

Ruby went and sat down in one of the chairs. She took the ring of the necklace that she was wearing and turned it over three times in her hand.

The hazy, ghostly figure of Voldemort drifted up.

"Master" Ruby whispered, her voice full of awe. The ghost of Voldemort did not show him as he had looked when Harry had killed him, but as he had been when he was still young and handsome. His black hair fell into his face, but his eyes were still scarlet.

"You called me, Ruby?" he asked. Ruby nodded her head.

"I am afraid that we…we have a problem" she said. Voldemort frowned.

"What problem do we have?" he asked, his tone a bit more harsh. Ruby shirked back a bit.

"You know I'm an enchantress" Ruby said to him.

"I thought we decided that was to our advantage" he drawled.

"Well it is, usually, but I have run into some problems because of it" Ruby said.

"We're back to the problems aren't we?' Voldemort asked "just tell me what it is"

"Well, when enchantresses are born, they are assigned a partner" Ruby said.

"A partner?" Voldemort asked, eyebrows raised.

"Like…I don't know what you call it…a soul mate, but even more strong than that" she said.

"So it's basically means that every enchantress had a person out there that she is bonded to" Voldemort said. Ruby nodded.

"Yes, that's it. We're bonded to that one person, emotionally, physically, everything. And since there is no such thing as a male enchantress, all of our partners are normal wizards- usually pureblood ones from old wizarding families." She said.

"And I take it that you have found your partner" Voldemort asked.

"Yes" Ruby answered

"How do you know who he is?" he asked.

"You can tell by touch…we just know" she said.

"Well…who is your partner?" the man asked. Ruby took in a deep breath.

"Albus Potter" she said. Voldemort's eyes flashed and his hands formed into fists.

"Out of all the people you could have chosen…you chose Harry Potter's son!" he exclaimed.

"I couldn't help it- I don't choose!" Rose said. "Forgive me master"

"You were my best student, Ruby" Voldemort said, a small smile creeping onto his face. "and you still will be. We can use this 'bond' you and the boy share to harm him even more, can't we?" he asked.

"Yes, of course we can, master" Ruby said

"Good…good. Let me think of a plan, my girl. Call me back soon" he said before he disappeared. Ruby looked at the place where her master was in fear, because she knew…she knew that she had lied to her master. Albus Potter was her mate and she knew that there was no way Merlin that her body would allow her to hurt him, no matter how much her master wanted her to.

From above the fireplace, the wizard in the picture slid out of it and back to his main one in the Headmaster's office.

"Where did you go, Albus?" Minerva asked him as he came back.

"I have just overheard…the most fascinating conversation, Minerva" Dumbledore said, apparently the Room of Requirements, upon hearing Ruby's request, sensed danger; and instead of giving the girl a private place to chat with her master; it gave her a room with a portrait of Dumbledore in it- so that he could monitor everything the girl was saying.

"Well, what was the conversation about?" she asked.

"Oh, just a meeting between friends" Dumbledore said lightly "I need you to tell Harry, Ron, and Hermione to come up and visit me again" he added.

Minerva paled a bit and nodded, grabbing her cape and rushing out of the room.

"Partners…" Dumbledore said, shaking his head and smiling to himself.

**A/N: So how was that for a twist? Please review and tell me what you think!**

**And I decided sicne you guys are going through the trouble of reviewing my story, I thought I'd show my appreciation by answering all of your reviews. So here are all the ones I got for chapter two- if I missed anyone, I am deeply sorry. **

**Kaillinne Arami**- Thanks a bunch! And Camille and James are definitely following in the footsteps of their fathers- maybe I should still consider adding in a car wreck.

**Freaky-callback-girl**- He is one of my favorite characters to. I loved Draco, and I am having a lot of fun writing his son.

**Allora Gale**- I rushed and wrote like the devil so that I could get this update for you quickly.

**Kittyatza**- thanks a lot! I hope this chapter was just as suspense-filled.

**Silvercrytal77**- I agree with you completely. What's the fun of the story if there isn't any bad guy?

**SkyflowerRose**- Thanks- I'm truly flattered.

**Produceninja**- Hmmm…I can't give away too much of the story, but let's just say Al will definitely meet both Dumbledore and Snape somewhere along the story.

**FireChildSlytherin5**- Snape is my favorite character from the book as well! I'm sorry I didn't put too many people into Slytherin. Ruby's in there though, and she's a fun character!

**AMbAtMAnyAbAMz**- I agree with you, Voldemort coming back completely would be a very boring- so I am having him train Ruby, who I feel will make a much more interesting villain.

**Chocholic1516**- Thanks for you kind words! They really mean a lot to me.

**I love all of you guys, thanks again for reviewing!**


	4. The Magic of enchantresses and Quidditch

**A/N: Okay here is the next chapter. It's another long one. My next update might not be as soon as these past few because I'm moving and there are things everywhere waiting to be packed. So it might take 3-4 days for me to get my next chpater up, instead of my normal 1-2 days. But I hope this one will keep you occupied until then! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 3: The magic of Enchantresses and Quidditch**

The next day when Al went down to breakfast, he found Rose sitting at the table, her nose buried in a book. The book wasn't as thick as the ones Rose was known to read, but it was thick enough to make Al a bit wary. He went over and sat next to Scorpio, who was trying to talk to Rose, but kept getting hushed.

"But Rose, it's the second day of school, what could you possible be reading?" Scorpio was asking as Al sat down and started to pile his plate with food. Rose looked up irritably.

"It's a book on enchantresses" Rose said simply. Al stopped, his hand halfway to the porridge bowl, and looked at Rose.

"Enchantresses?" he asked, his interest suddenly pricked.

"Yes, I know how much Ruby had been bothering you, so I thought I would find out more about her kind" Rose said. Al felt a sudden surge of thankfulness to his cousin, who had always been helping him out.

"Did you get that from the library?" Scorpio asked. Rose shook her head and leaned forward towards the two boys.

"The library didn't have any books on enchantresses" she told them, voice hushed "apparently they are dark creatures- so everything about them was in the restricted section"

"The restricted section?" Scorpio asked, looking more interested the subject now "did you sneak into it to get the book?"

"Of course I didn't!" Rose gasped, looking shocked that the boy would even think that she would have done something and against the rules as sneaking into the restricted section. "Camille gave it to me…I don't know where she got it from…probably nicked it…"

"Who cares where she got it from" Al said "what does it say?" Rose looked back down at the book.

"Well nothing good so far" she said darkly "apparently enchantresses are nasty bits of work. They are born with the ability to charm people and make them bend to their will. They are dangerous creatures, highly impressionable as well…"

Al, though, did not hear anymore of what Rose was saying because at that exact moment he felt a tingle sweep through his whole body. He turned around to see that Ruby had just entered the hall, looking dead tired and incredibly jumpy. Her dark eyes kept scanning the hall, and when her eyes met Al's she immediately paled, her eyes widening and her face contorting with the same look of fear that she had worn the day before. She put her head down and rushed to the Slytherin Table, not even stopping when she almost ran down a small Ravenclaw girl.

"Well that was odd" Ruby said, she had witnessed the whole scene as well.

"I told you she was frightened of me" Al hissed, turning back to hood, suddenly not very hungry anymore.

"It's better than her being mean to you, isn't it?" Scorpio said "at least this way, she'll be ignoring you"

"Yeah…you're right" Al said, though deep down, for some reason he was feeling rather angry at the fact that Ruby would be ignoring him. Rose on the other hand was reading her enchantress book with a new intensity.

"What's up, Rose?' Al asked.

"Enchantresses aren't supposed to be afraid of anything" Rose said.

"Bet Professor Maywood must love Ruby then" Scorpio said, his voice going low and soft, just like the professor's "you must learn not to fear anything"

"Yeah, but if you didn't notice, she looked absolutely terrified of Al" Rose said impatiently. "There must be something about it in here" she muttered to herself, flipping through the pages.

Al just sat silently, looking at his plate of food, not sure what to make of the situation. Suddenly Rose looked up from her book and eyed Al, a frown on her face.

"Al, why aren't you eating anything?' she asked.

"Oh…I'm not hungry, I guess" he said.

"You didn't eat anything all of yesterday, either. Starving yourself isn't going to help us do anything" she said sternly, sounding amazingly like her mum.

"But I really haven't had much of an appetite" Al retorted. And it was true, lately the thought of food just hadn't appealed to him at all.

"Looks like our friend is in the same boat at you" Scorpio said, pointing to Ruby, who was slouched at her table, looking at the pile of sausages in front of her like they were toads.

"Loss of appetite…and sleep too, it looks like" Rose muttered, looking at ruby. She once again cracked open the book and started to read.

James came up to the three of them, a broomstick tucked underneath his arm, his floppy hair tousled, as though he had just been flying.

"Where have you been?" Al asked, looking up at his brother.

"Flying with Cammy; Quidditch tryouts are today- we're both hoping to make beaters- the old ones graduated last year" he said, and sure enough, Cammy appeared behind him, her own broomstick in one hand and Fred's old beater bat in the other.

"It's ancient" she said, holding out the peeling bat "but it's the best one I've ever played with. Wonder if it's charmed?"

"You three are going to come watch tryouts, aren't you?' James asked.

"Well, we actually have a bit of research to do…"

"Of course we'll be there" Al said, cutting Rose off in mid sentence "all of us" he added, glaring in the girl's direction.

Rose turned pink and closed her book.

"Yeah, we'll be there" she said brightly. Cammy and James, obviously satisfied, walked off.

"You know, we really should be trying to find out more about Ruby" Rose said to the other two.

"Come on, Rose, she hasn't done anything" Scorpio said.

"Yeah…well, there is something odd about her, you have to admit that" Rose retorted.

"Well no time to discuss this right now- we have charms in ten minutes" Al said, picking up his bags "and Cammy said yesterday that the professor was a stickler for punctuality"

"A stickler for punctuality?" Scorpio said, also getting up "I think you've been spending too much time around Rose"

"Just because you have the vocabulary of a five year old…" Rose mumbled, also standing up, her head still buried in her book.

Charms was not the most exciting of all classes. Granted, Al was excited to actually start learning magic spells (to be able to hex James more than anything else), but Professor Flitwick was ancient and not all to exciting and had, in Al's opinion, decided to teach his students the most boring, pointless spell of them all.

"insecrua movimentia" Al mumbled, swishing his wand at a confused looking beetle on the table. The beetle started to do an odd dance.

"I really don't see the point of doing this" Al muttered to Scorpio and Rose "don't know when I'd ever need to make bugs dance…"

"It's the principles of it" Rose said "if we can learn to make charm insects, en it will be easier to charm humans"

"Don't when I would want to make a human dance either…" Scorpio said, causing Al to laugh and accidentally squash his beetle.

By the end of class, Rose had a row of dancing beetles lined up at the end of her desk. Al looked at them warily; they seemed to be doing some type of obscure can-can. Flitwick, on the other hand, seemed to think it was fabulous and awarded a blushing Rose twenty house points.

Rose was absolutely beaming as they left the room, and continued be in a good mood all through their History of Magic class, which was, by far, the most boring class than any student in the room had ever been in. Professor Binns was the only teacher that Al had heard of that was a ghost and him and Scorpio kept themselves amused by flicking pieces of parchment at professor, trying to see if he would notice. Rose, who was still in an exceptionally good mood, didn't even berate them, but instead (to Al's absolute amazement) actually giggled from behind her copy of "Hogwarts: A History".

By the end of class, Rose's mood seemed to have abated a bit and as they walked over to lunch, she started discussing the topic of Ruby again.

"I've looked through most of the important chapters in the book, and I still can't seem to find anything" she said. Scorpio looked over at the book.

"Which parts did you skip over?" he asked.

"Ah, nothing important…just the whole enchantress love habits part, personally I really don't care about who, or what, they fall in love with" Rose said.

"Maybe our original theory stands then" Al said as they walked along.

"And what was that?" Rose asked.

"That's Ruby's barking insane" he answered. Rose just shook her head and closed her book.

"Well I guess that's what we'll have to stick to because I can't seem to find anything" she said, looking bitter. Rose did not take kindly to not being able to find things out.

"Oh cheer up…look- they're having pheasant for lunch!" Scorpio said happily, moving over to the table. Rose looked disgusted.

"I bet his own mum could be on her deathbed and all that boy would think of is food." She said, following Scorpio to the table. Al sat down and looked in his bag.

"Oh no!" he cried.

"What?" Rose asked, looking very worried.

"I left my textbook in Binn's classroom" he said "I'm going to nip over there and get it real quick"

"Why don't you eat first?" Rose asked "I'm sure no student is going to want to walk off with your history book"

"I'm not hungry" Al said, but was immediately sorry that he admitted it when he saw the look of anger and concern creep up on his cousin's face.

"Actually, you know what? I'm starved!" he said quickly, grabbing a sandwich from the table. "I'll take this with me to go…it'll only be a minute or two"

And with that, Al left the hall, chucking his sandwich as soon as he got out.

"Ah! What the…Al?"

Al turned around to see Victoirie standing about two feet away from him, wearing Al's discarded sandwich as a hat.

"Oh, sorry…" he said, watching the girl gingerly pick out cheese from her long hair.

"Are you okay? Why did you throw your sandwich?" Victoirie asked.

"I wasn't hungry" Al mumbled. The girl looked at him oddly.

"Are you sure your fine?" she asked. Al nodded, feeling a little embarrassed. He turned to walk away when a thought suddenly hit him.

"Hey Victoirie, you're part veela" he said.

"Yeah, so?" she asked, obviously confused.

"Well, I was wondering if veelas spent much time with enchantresses; they seem to have some tings in common" he asked.

"Oh no!" Victoirie said, her eyes flashing "we would never spend time with those…creatures"

"What's wrong with them?" Al asked.

"Their odd things, enchantresses are; very selfish usually. They only care about their own personal gain and have been known to dabble in dark magic. If fact the only semi-normal enchantress that I have ever met is a girl that went to mum's school. She's fairly nice, but still a bit batty" Victiorie said.

"Oh, well thanks" Al said

"Why did you want to know, though?' she asked.

"Oh…it was just a book Cammy gave Rose- it's got us onto the subject" Al said, not being completely truthful.

Thankfully, Victiorie was not that great at spotting lies.

"That Cammy…always making people upset…" she muttered darkly, turning and walking away, still mumbling under her breath.

Al just shook his head and made his way to Professor Binns's room, thinking about what Victiorie had said about the enchantress that had gone to her mum's school. Something about that struck Al as being familiar…as though he had heard someone discuss it before; which was very unlikely, since talking about French enchantresses from Beaubatons wasn't really a hot topic around Hogwarts.

Al slipped into Binns's classroom, finding it empty. His book was under his seat, so he grabbed it and rushed out, before Binns could pop out of the ground and accuse him of snooping around his classroom.

He walked down the hallway, next to a very formidable looking statue when he felt the familiar tingle going down his body. He immediately hid behind the statue and peeked out from behind it, only to find Ruby and Professor Slughorn walking down hallway.

"Now listen, my girl" Slughorn was saying "what you are asking of me would be very difficult…"

"Professor, you are the head of my house, if you can't do it anyone can" Ruby said, plainly turning on her charm. Slughorn, though, seemed too old and too jaded to be affected much by it.

"I know, but you need to have a very good reason why you would want to switch classes" he said.

"I already told you, professor, I cannot concentrate in that class; the…people are offsetting" she answered. Slughorn shrugged.

"I know that it might be difficult for you, as it is with all Slytherins, to be in the same classroom with Gryffindors, but I hardly think that it is a sufficient reason for you to switch into another Herbology class, my dear" he said. Al gasped; she was trying to get switched out of his class?"

As the two of them were passing by the statue where Al was hidden, Ruby suddenly tensed. Al saw her eyes go wide, as they had that morning.

"I'll think about what you said, professor" she said quietly "maybe I will change my mind"

"Now that is the spirit, my girl" Slughorn said happily "sleep on it- you'll realize it was a rash decision" he added, patting her on the back and walking away. Ruby remained standing where she was.

Al wanted to yell after Professor Slughorn to tell him not to leave in alone in the hallway with a crazy enchantress and an evil looking statue; but it was no use, Slughorn was already turning the corner. Al thought that he moved rather quickly for a man of his age.

As soon as Slughorn was out of sight, Ruby strode over to the statue and looked directly at Al.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Um….reading" Al said, holding up his textbook. Ruby looked at him like he was insane.

"You're reading…A Hogwarts: A History…behind a statue of Salazar Slytherin…"

"Oh, is that who this is?" Al asked "looks like a…pleasant bloke" he said, trying to hard not to look at the statue's sneering face.

"Well…I best be going now…lunch time you see; I'm quite starving" Al said, turning around very quickly; walking briskly down the hall.

"You're not hungry" Ruby said quietly. Al stopped in his tracks. Ruby continued.

"You haven't been hungry since yesterday; you didn't sleep well last night; you were distracted all of today" she said as she walked up to him. Al turned around to face her.

"How…how did you know?' he asked. Ruby reached out and grabbed his arm. Al suddenly felt weak.

"And right now, you feel as though you are on the verge of collapse…but it's a good feeling" she said. Al didn't really know how to respond. Ruby let go of his arm.

"You're wondering how I know this, but I won't tell you because it's safer for both of us this way" she said "you stay out of my way and I'll stay out of your and we won't end up doing anything that we'll regret later."

And with that she swept out of the hallway. Al looked at the place where he had been, in shock for a moment, not at the words that Ruby had said; but because of the scary, yet startlingly real feeling that he had…the feeling that he might actually fancy Ruby.

"I'm eleven" Al said out loud to himself "I don't fancy girls yet…I don't like girls yet…except for Rose, of course"

"That's what they all say" the statue of Salazar Slytherin said. Al ignored it and walked down the hallway, his textbook clutched loosely in one hand, a shocked expression on his face.

"Oh there you are Al! We've been looking for you all over!"

Rose and Scorpio were coming down the hallway.

"We went to professor Binns's room, but it was empty, so we thought that you might be….blimey, what is wrong with you?" Scorpio asked as they came closer.

Al told them everything that had happened and saw both of them stare at him in wonder.

"You…you fancy her?" Rose asked, shocked.

"Odd taste in girls, I must say" Scorpio added, looking as though he was trying not to laugh.

"This is NOT funny" Al growled. Scorpio shrugged.

"What would you do if I came to you and said that I had suddenly started to fancy a crazed enchantress who looks like she wants to murder everybody around her?"

"I…would be supportive?" Al said, though he sounded very miserable.

"It's probably not your fault- I bet Ruby just turned her charm on you" Rose said. Al looked at her pointedly.

"Yes Rose, I am sure that was what happened. Ruby turned her charm on me while she was telling me to stay as far away from her as possible" he said.

"Well…well…well…if it isn't the blood traitor" a voice from behind them jeered. Al, Scorpio, and Rose turned around quickly.

Two very large looking boys stood in front of them, looking at Scorpio with very nasty expressions.

"Oh great, like we didn't have enough problems to worry about" Rose muttered.

"If it isn't little Scorpius Malfoy, standing beside the statue of the great Salazar Slytherin…" the larger one jeered.

"Um…do I know you lot?" Scorpio asked, looking confused. The larger kid smiled.

"Name's Adrian Carrow" he said "My dad was a great friend of your grandfather's"

Scorpio's frown grew deeper.

"Probably meant he was a mad man as well" he said. Adrian's eyes flashed.

"My dad was a genius…as was your grandfather. What would he think of you, his very own grandson, being in Gryffindor with all the blood traitors?" he asked, starting to come closer to them. Al caught a flash of the boy's wand, which looked a great deal like a small log.

"We don't want trouble" Rose said quickly, her voice shaking a bit.

"You shut your mouth, Weasley, we have no time to deal with your pathetic family" Adrian said.

"Oi, what did you say about the Weasleys'?" a voice from behind them asked. Al turned around a bit to see Cammy calmly walking up to the scene.

"I said they were a pathetic family" Adrian hissed. Cammy looked up at him, murder in her eyes, but a small grin on her face.

"Really? Our family is pathetic, is it Carrow?" she asked "Have you taken a look at your own one lately?"

"What are you trying to say about me family?" Adrian asked, eyes silted.

"What am I trying to say?" Cammy asked, shaking with derisive laughter "Oh, I just wanted to ask how your dad was- Azkaban treating him nice? And what about your aunt- is Hell hot enough for her? I would hate for them to be discomforted after all those horrible murders they committed"

Adrian defiantly looked a bit frightened at that point; and Al had to admit that Cammy was a frightening sight, brandishing her wand in one hand and swinging her heavy beaters club around in the other.

"Geniuses, you said- oh yes, Death Eaters were quite the ingenious ones!" Cammy seethed, her eyes blazing "killing innocent people, betraying their friends, pledging their allegiance to a man who wouldn't even give them the time unless they groveled at his feet? It's a shame that we all can't be that smart, isn't it Adrian?"

"You're overacting?" Adrian mumbled. Cammy swung at him with her beaters bat, and he ducked just in time.

"Overacting? Don't you dare, you filthy little boy, come up to us and call us pathetic and then try to tell me I'm overacting. You…get…out of…my sight…" she said, her last words laced with so much anger that Adrian didn't need to be told twice. He turned immediately on his heels and ran for his life.

"That…was…brilliant!" Scorpio cried as Adrian ran down the hall. Cammy turned to the group and gave them a sheepish smile, though Al noticed that her eyes were still blazing. Apparently, Adrian Carrow had hit a nerve with the girl.

"I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't have my broom with me" Cammy said, as she picked up the beater club that she had thrown at Adrian as he ran off "I have a few places where I could have stuck that up of…"

"Where is your broom?" Rose asked.

"James took it down to the pitch for me…tryouts are starting soon" she said "we should get going"

"Why did you get so mad as Carrow?" Al asked as they all walked down to the pitch.

"Cause he's a pathetic git" she answered. Al was pretty sure that wasn't the case, but he didn't want to pry.

"So, did you three have any luck with the book?" Cammy asked. Al looked at the other two, wondering whether or not to tell Cammy about what they knew. Cammy was only a second year, but she was wise beyond her years and knew spells that Al was sure that most fifth years didn't know. She could care less about her schoolwork, but she had a brilliant mind and would be a great asset to the group.

Rose and Scorpio knew immediately what Al was thinking and both of them nodded their heads. So Al turned to Cammy and told her everything that they knew and everything they had guessed about Ruby.

"So you're basically trying to tell me that Ruby is an insane, evil enchantress…and you fancy her" Cammy said, trying hard not to laugh.

"It's not funny!" Scorpio said harshly, finally taking Al's side "she could have been putting him in a trance or whatever it is that enchantresses do"

"Well I guess your right. I would just follow her advice and stay away from her, Al" Cammy said.

"I disagree" Rose said, darkly. "Ruby is obviously trying to trick Al into doing something…and I will find out what it is"

"Rose…" Al started weakly, but he knew it wouldn't make a difference what he said. Rose was the most headstrong girl he had ever known and at times, she was the brashest and boldest one too. In fact; though Rose would kill Al if he told anybody. She had been quite the trouble maker back when they had been in muggle school when they were younger- always correcting what the teachers said and making her fellow students quite upset.

'Rose, please just tell us before your do anything rash" Cammy said as they walked outside to the Quidditch pitch. It was a bright day and the sun was beating mercilessly down on a group of broom-carrying children at the end of the pitch. James's bright red hair shone, easily distinguishing him from the crowd.

"I better get over there as well" Cammy said, rushing over. "Wish me luck!"

Al, Scorpio, and Rose all wished her luck and then clambered to the stands; which held a surprising amount of people.

"I didn't know Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts were this popular" Al said as the three of them found sat down on a bench.

"I can't wait until next year when I'm old enough to try out for the team!" Rose cried as they sat down. Rose had gotten her first broomstick from George when she was five and had been flying ever since. In fact, one time when Al went over to visit, he had found her in the backyard, reading a book while sitting on her broomstick, lazily floating six feet up in the air. She always said that she was afraid of heights, but when she was on her broomstick, she really wasn't afraid of anything.

"My dad was on the team when he was a first year" Al said. He always felt left out of his family because of flying, though. His mum and dad had both been on the team; James was almost certain of making it this year; and Lily loved flying almost as much as Rose did. Al, on the other hand, didn't really like flying much. He had tried many times to enjoy it, but flying just left him dizzy and he really didn't see everybody's fascination with Quidditch.

Tryouts started soon, starting with the seekers. Two people were trying out for seeker position. Al didn't think either of them were that brilliant. He soon lost interest in watching the two of them trying to catch walnuts thrown by the captain and instead looked around, enjoying the soft sunlight that lazily filtered down, bathing the whole pitch in a hazy light. The sunlight reflected off of Scorpio's white-blond hair, making it shine silver, incredibly like veela hair.

"Al, pay attention- the beaters are next" Rose hissed to him. Al looked back at the pitch, just in time to see Cammy and James rise up into the air. There were five other students who were trying out for beater.

"It's quite the competitive position, isn't it?" Scorpio asked. Al nodded his head, looking at James, who was whispering something into Cammy's ear. Both of them burst out laughing. The captain threw James a dirty look and he gave her his famous, heart-melting smile. The captain looked away, though it was obvious to see that she was surprised and flattered. Al, at times, envied James's confidence. He didn't where his brother got all of his confidence from.

The beater tryouts were fairly good; it was obvious that Cammy and James's were the best out of the bunch, even though Cammy was playing with her uncle's ancient beaters bat. Both of them had been flying since they were born (at least that is what it had seemed like to Al) and their experience obviously showed. Plus, it just seemed like Cammy and James were good at hitting things…at other people.

As soon as the beater tryouts were over, the captain announced that Cammy and James had gotten the positions and gave them both their new uniforms. Al, Scorpio, and Rose cheered loudly. Al would have been more than happy to leave then, but Rose was intent on staying for the whole thing.

There was only one chaser position open and it was filled quickly enough. Next was the tryout for keeper. The only problem was, nobody wanted the position.

"Come on, you lot!" Michele Lee, the captain, shouted to the group standing on the field. "Don't any of you still want a chance to be on the team?"

"Not as a keeper!" one of them said.

"Yeah, too much pressure" another one added.

"much too difficult" said another. Michele sighed.

Suddenly Rose stood up next to Al.

"I'll try out" she said. Scorpio and Al looked up at her, shocked. Michele flew up to the Rose and looked at her with a critical eye.

"What year are you?" she asked.

"I'm in first, but I've been flying forever and I wanted to try out for keeper next year, anyways" she said.

"Well…we haven't had a first year on the team since…"

"Harry Potter…my uncle" Rose said, smiling a bit. Michele looked Rose over once more and nodded her head slightly.

"I don't see any reason why we can't have you on the team if you're a good keeper. Do you have a broom?' she asked. Rose nodded her head.

"It's at home, obviously- I can owl my mum and tell her to send it to me" Rose answered.

"She can use mine for tryouts" James said, tossing his broomstick to Rose.

"Okay then- let's start" Michele said. Rose got on James's broomstick and flew up gracefully. Her red hair flew out wildly behind her, and her stormy blue eyes lit up. It was obvious to see that she was where she belonged.

Rose took her place by the posts, a determined look on her face. She was the type of girl that liked to be the best in whatever she did, whether it was schoolwork or flying. But, truth be told, Rose was a natural at flying. Where she got her skills from, nobody really knew. Her mum had hated flying and her dad had been a passable keeper, but not that great.

Rose, on the other hand, was a genius at flying. She made a few incredible saves and Michele let her onto the team, beaming- her eyes full of tears.

"We'll be sure to win the cup this year" she said, sobbing, as she pressed a set of Quidditch robes into Rose's hands.

Rose was in a very good mood for the rest of the day.

"I didn't think I would get a chance to try out until next year" she gushed as they walked back to the common room "wait until I tell dad- he'll be so pleased! He always said that he hoped I would be on the team"

"I'm hoping to try out next year" Scorpio said "I always wanted to be a chaser. What about you, Al?" he asked. Al shrugged.

"I never liked flying much" he answered, feeling like the odd one out once again. But Rose and Scorpio didn't seem to care.

"Yeah, my mum wasn't too hot on it either. I'm so much like her, so she doesn't get my obsession with flying" she said "hopefully being on the team won't impede on my studies. I mean it's okay not to get the top marks all the time- but if that Thomas bloke beats me, I'm going to be angry"

"Well make sure you don't have a practice this Friday" Al said "Hagrid invited all of us to tea, remember"

"Oh yeah" Rose said as they clambered through the portrait hole. They were greeted by a great amount of cheers.

"Congrats, Rose!" Cammy cried out from amid the noise "youngest Gryffindor player in twenty years!"

"Thanks" Rose said, turning pink, though beaming widely. They party lasted until late in the night, and for the first time since he arrived at Hogwarts, Al let go of his worries and had fun with all of his friends and classmates.

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just arrived in the headmistress's office, out of breath and dreadfully worried.

"Minerva said you wanted to see us" Hermione said to Dumbledore's portrait.

"Oh yes- it seems I have found the person who has the stone" Dumbledore said pointedly. The three of them gasped.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked.

"I know- I've been through all the books- Wizards and Witched\s of the Modern Age; The Centuries Most Powerful Magicians; Famous Wizards- Friends or Foes…" Hermione said, obviously a bit put off by the fact that a portrait had been able to find the mystery wizard before she had.

"The person that has the stone is not powerful" Dumbledore said calmly "and I am quite sure that she is not in any publication"

"So it's a witch!" Ron said "Well, if she isn't powerful there isn't much to worry about, is there?" he asked. Dumbledore shook his head.

"I misstated" he said "the witch I am talking about has strong natural powers, but she isn't trained right now. But, if Voldemort trains her she will be as, if not more, powerful than he was himself"

"More powerful?' Harry asked, weakly. "Well, how do we stop this witch?"

Dumbledore looked down at them, a sad and apprehensive look on his face.

"Harry…I know that you are going to be very upset over what I tell you next, so please stay calm with me while I explain" he said. Harry nodded and Dumbledore continued on.

"Last time I gave you the quest to find and kill Voldemort because I knew that it was your quest to complete" he said. Harry nodded once more.

"Well this time it isn't your quest" Dumbledore stated firmly.

"Well, whose is it?" Ron asked. The old man sighed a bit before answering.

"It's your son's, Harry" he said. Harry looked at the man angrily.

"My son's? he said "Al's?". For some reason, he knew that Al was the one Dumbledore was talking about. The boy reminded him so much of himself, it seemed almost natural.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Wait…that mean's Rose will be affected to- they're best friends!" Hermione whispered, weakly. Ron put his arm around her shoulders.

"Let me help" Harry said to Dumbledore. "Let me help him on his quest."

"No" Dumbledore said firmly "I told you it was his problem- just as it was your nineteen years ago". Harry became absolutely livid.

"My dad" he seethed "would have helped me on my quest if he had been alive"

"But you were offered help from a father figure" Dumbledore said "Remus told me that he had offered to come with you, but you refused because you knew it was something you must do". Harry wouldn't listen to reason, though.

"My dad gave up his life to save me- and am willing to do the same thing for Al. Do you know how many times I escaped death, how many horrible sights I witnessed? How can I put my son through that knowing that he has no help?"

"Your son will have help" Dumbledore said "Just as you had Hermione and Ron; your son will have his two friends as well"

"Rose" Ron whispered, paling. "Now I know how my mum felt when I went off…"

"See how having children makes everything seem more real?" Dumbledore asked, smiling slightly.

"You speak like you've experienced it" Harry spat "You don't know what it feels like to just let your child run into danger's arms and to do nothing about it. You don't know what it's like to have loved and raised a child for eleven years only to learn that now he has to go and fight the ultimate evil!" By the end of his speech, he was shaking. Hermione ran to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"As a matter of fact, I do know how it feels" Dumbledore said calmly. Everybody just looked up at him, speechless. Hermione was the first to regain her wits.

"You…you had a child? What happened to it?" she asked.

"If my knowledge serves me right- which I am positive it does- my daughter is still very much alive, and in good health at that" Dumbledore answered. Harry, who was taken aback by this news eyes Dumbledore.

"So you do know what it feels like to be in my position?' he asked.

"Yes" the old man answered.

"And knowing this you are still saying that I am not allowed to help my son?"

"Harry, it is your son's duty to fight this time"

Harry looked at Dumbledore for a good minute before turning to Ron and Hermione. They were both pale and shaking. Ron was hugging his wife, who was sobbing silently, tears streaming down her face. They were terrified for their child too. Both of them looked up at Harry and nodded. They knew that no matter how much they hated it, it had to be done. Voldemort could not come back, and if Albus was the one who had to bring him down this time- then that was the way it had to be.

Harry turned back to the portrait of Dumbledore.

"Take…take care of him…all of them" he whispered, his voice filled with pain. Dumbledore smiled gently.

"The witch in question will not hurt your son, Harry, she cannot." He answered.

"Truly?" Harry asked. Dumbledore nodded.

"Talk to him" Harry said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" the man asked.

"Call my son to the office and talk to him, explain everything to him as you explained everything to me"

"I will, Harry…In good time I will" Dumbledore said "right now, I see no reason to worry your son. We'll wait for some time, let your son get used to the school, to magic…when the time is right I will tell him everything"

Harry looked at Dumbledore.

"I believe in you" Harry said shakily "I said long ago I was Dumbledore's man through and through and I still am. Take care of my son"

Dumbledore smiled at Harry, tears shimmering in his eyes.

"I will, Harry, I will"

**A/N: So I have now set up the story- so the main events can begin. In the next chapter, and from then on, Al and his friends will be in their sixth year and all of the action will take place. As always, please review!!**

**Bunn2007**- I know that the new three are very much like the old one- but trust me, there are many, many differences between them that will start to show very soon. The new DA teacher is one of my favorites to write. And about Slughorn- he's just a batty old man, nothing more…at least for now.

**QuakingQuibbler**- thank you so much. And I read/reviewed your fic and I think your quite the talented author.

**Kaillinne Arami**- It's like you read my mind!! Daddy and Mommy Malfoy will make an appearance soon- so just keep watching out for it!

**Kittyatza**- Thank you so much for the compliment!

**Silvercrystal77**- The portrait of Dumbledore appeared because the room sensed a threat to the castly and put it there as a defense tactic. It's explained a bit more in depth at the end of the 2nd chapter. Oh- and the mystery of Maywood will be reveled soon!

**Nuked**- Thanks, and here's the update for you!

**Harry Potter fans4ever**- Thanks so much- I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well

**CrazyWriter18**- haha- no, sadly I am not J.K. Rowling; but if I was I would never stop writing HP books because I am having so much fun writing this fanfic, so I can just imagine how amazing it must have been for her to write the books. Thank you for all your compliments- they mean a lot to me!

**Freaky-callback-girl**- it was an odd twist, wasn't it? And worry not, little Al will learn all about his father in the coming chapters.

**Produceninja**- here's the update for you!

**Allora Gale**- Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

**Nanite1018**- Thank you for your kind words. Hope this chapter was a good one for you.

**Killache**- I hurried for you! Hopefully you liked it!

**If I missed anybody, I am really sorry!!!**


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